I have a 22" touchscreen monitor that I plan to mount on the wall, but I’m trying to figure out how to access Home Assistant from the monitor. I have a Dell Optiplex 160 mini PC that I’m hoping will do the job. It has an Intel Atom 330 1.6GHz CPU and 3GB of DDR2 ram.
I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations for a lightweight OS that I can use. Its sole purpose will be to view/access the dashboard.
Do you think this is a good idea or should I opt for something else like a RPi? I prefer to not buy something if I don’t have to.
Welcome! Just to clarify… you’re not planning on running Home Assistant on this device, just using the screen to access HA on another device on your network? If this is correct, all you need for this device is a browser, so any OS will do, and the simpler the better!
@FloatingBoater Truth be told I haven’t setup Home Assistant yet. I was planning on doing so on another device. The thought did cross my mind to install it on this Optiplex but I was concerned on the performance given how old the device is.
@PecosKidd That is correct, I was not planning on running Home Assistant on this device, simply to access it. I figured all I need is a browser so the more lightweight (but touchscreen compatible) the better. I figured some Linux flavor should do the job.
I’d say that with not a great number of devices and if you don’t need to use voice or video processing then that device with a lightweight Linux distro like Lubuntu you can have a device that can host ha core and pilot your touchscreen with advanced management done via ssh or if you lose network for some reason with some cheap wireless mouse/kid like the ones used for smart tv.
The ram is a little low but you can try and see what happens…
Although HAOS / HASS has become a little larger than when this post was written in 2023, I’d try a HAOS install image on the Atom. If nothing else, you’ll learn a few things from the on-boarding process and setup.
The Atom is a bit slow, but 3Mb RAM will help.
Current HASOS has a realistic minimum requirement of 1Gb of RAM, and really needs 2Gb+. Running on a RPi3A used to work (slowly in 512Mb) with a lot of swapping memory to disk, which will now burn a hole in uSD storage. A RPi3B is a bit faster with 1Gb of RAM so can work for some, but you will need patience for some tasks (ESPhome compiles aren’t realistic).
RPi4 2Mb is probably the sweet-spot, although a RPi5 2Mb will have a longer life. And buy a DECENT power supply - odd Ethernet and other errors can occur from brown-outs. ProxMox can be useful, but try HAOS first to get started unless you know virtualisation well and have the time for sysadmin.
this post!