Installing on a Mini PC due to RPI OOS?

Installation
1

Due to Rasperry Pi’s in rare availablity, I have a Mini PC (32gb non removable eMMC) knocking about that would make a good simple Home Assistant setup. Tronsmart Ara X5 mini PC review: It's a real desktop PC... but not a super speedy one - Liliputing

I have never installed on a Mini PC before. I have no interest in Windows being on the machine, nor as a virtual box; I literally want it dedicated to Home Assistant and to use a Zigbee dongle. How can I get it up and running please?

Thank you

EDIT: I have read this guide Generic x86-64 - Home Assistant but I’m slightly confused by the instructions:

Copying the HAOS disk image from your Desktop computer onto your boot medium (e.g. by using a USB to S-ATA adapter). This is not an option for a non-removable eMMC on your x86-64 hardware, of course. To use this method, follow the steps described in the procedure below: Write the image to your boot media.

As I can’t install an internal SSD, does this mean I need to always run Home Assistant from an external boot media e.g. USB, USB SSD, SD Card?

3

The instructions look pretty straight forward here but you will need some linux familarity.
in summary…

  1. Using any available computer, Download a linux live usb session (ubuntu)
  2. Write this usb image to a USB storage device (balena etcher)
  3. Insert the bootable usb into your Mini PC
  4. Boot to a live session
  5. Ensure a network connection is available for the Mini PC
  6. In the live session, again download (balena etcher)
  7. Run (balena etcher)
  8. Continue with "3. Select “Flash from URL” from this tutorial

When you select a destination for balenaEtcher select the eMMC it will look something like this /dev/sda or /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc Identify it by the capacity (32gb??).

Good luck!

1 Like
4

Hi, thank you for the steps however it’s not working.
Step 8 onwards to flashing, balena etcher cannot see my internal emmc to flash to. The only sda or sdc etc options are Ubuntu on my USB stick. No other location to flash to.

Help?

EDIT: I definitely have Secure Boot disabled in my bios and UEFI enabled

5

When you boot into ubuntu on the USB stick, open a terminal window and type
sudo fdisk -l
What is the output of this command?