Lost z-wave USB after updating to Home assistant 6.6

Hi.

After updating to home assistant OS 6.6 running as an VM on unraid I lost my Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5+ stick.

The stick is connected to a USB 3.0 port on my unraid server, witch has worked for over 1 year now. After updating I can no longer se it inside Home Assistant.

I see the stick in unraid and is able to pass it to my VM, but it does not show up any longer. Any sugestions?

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same here,updated yesterday and now its not finding Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5+ stick.no problems before,did you get it working.

same here, still looking for a solution

Not sure if anyone’s issue is related to the new controller soft reset feature of zwavejs, which is discussed here

If you’re running zwavejs2mqtt, you can disable soft reset in the control panel. If you’re just using zwavejs, I don’t think you can modify the setting there.

i dont use zwavejs2mqtt,but in the log of zwavejs it mentions doing a softreset

Hi.

The issue is related to the soft restart inside zwavejs2mqtt. I disabled it, removed and inserted the z-wave stick again and rebooted home assistant, and I was up and running again. Thanks for the help @mwav3

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To clarify, the soft reset now happens in BOTH zwavejs, and zwavejs2mqtt.

Only zwavejs2mqtt gives you the option to disable it through the control panel though. You do not have this option with zwavejs.

If you run zwavejs, as of right now, your only options are to downgrade by restoring an old backup/snapshot, or switch to zwavejs2mqtt to disable soft reset.

When the soft reset occurs on a zstick connected to a vm, many vms will just close the connection. Or, the ttyacm* path will change on the host os and the stick will also no longer connect to a vm.

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That did it!!! I run a VM. I had to stop the VM then reinsert the ZWave stick, then device came back

Thanks, I did not have zwavejs2mqtt installed yet. I was able to transfer my settings, remove zwavejs. And then a couple rounds of unplugging and rebooting with the soft reset off and it came back online.
I did have to rename things, not sure if there was a better way that would avoid that.

If you’re running libvirt (KVM), I wrote a guide to work-around/fix the USB disconnect issue.

thanks mwav3,i restored 0.1.45 and i am running again.i have just installed zwavejsmqtt. when i open the web ui it say 401 unauthorized.do i need to stop zwavejs first. i dont want to touch anything now i have it going again but i would like to upgrade and disable the soft reset issue,any ideas of the best way to go about this.

Yes, you can’t run them both at the same time.

I haven’t had to switch myself, but take a look at this post.

Hopefully someone who actually switched can share their experience too. I think the biggest issue would be if you had a lot of devices and changed the entity names. If you stuck with the given entity names, it will be smoother.

cheers mate,will have a look at the weekend when i have more time.

I am having the same problem but I can’t resolve it by disabling the soft reset. I get the following traces in the HA log:

2021-11-16 18:01:07 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.zwave_js] Failed to connect: Cannot connect to host a0d7b954-zwavejs2mqtt:3000 ssl:default [Connect call failed ('172.30.33.0', 3000)]
2021-11-16 18:01:07 WARNING (MainThread) [homeassistant.config_entries] Config entry 'Z-Wave JS' for zwave_js integration not ready yet: Cannot connect to host a0d7b954-zwavejs2mqtt:3000 ssl:default [Connect call failed ('172.30.33.0', 3000)]; Retrying in background

and in the Zwave log I get:

2021-11-16 18:10:10.984 INFO ZWAVE: Connecting to /dev/ttyACM0
2021-11-16T17:10:10.987Z DRIVER β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•—
β•šβ•β•β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β• β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β•β•β–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β•β•β•β•β• β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β•β•β•β•β•
β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β• β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•—
β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β• β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•—β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β•β•β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β•šβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β• β–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β•β•β• β•šβ•β•β•β•β• β–ˆβ–ˆ β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β•šβ•β•β•β•β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘
β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β•šβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β• β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘ β•šβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β• β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•— β•šβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•”β• β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ•‘
β•šβ•β•β•β•β•β•β• β•šβ•β•β•β•šβ•β•β• β•šβ•β• β•šβ•β• β•šβ•β•β•β• β•šβ•β•β•β•β•β•β• β•šβ•β•β•β•β• β•šβ•β•β•β•β•β•β•
2021-11-16T17:10:10.989Z DRIVER version 8.7.5
2021-11-16T17:10:10.989Z DRIVER
2021-11-16T17:10:20.027Z DRIVER Failed to open the serial port: Error: No such file or directory, cannot open
/dev/ttyACM0
2021-11-16 18:10:20.038 WARN ZWAVE: Retry connection in 3 seconds...

I have also tried to change to β€œ/dev/serial/by-id/xxxxxx” but changed back in this run.

I am running HA in a VM inside a Synology server and it has been working for a long time.

Also good to know is that I was running behind with updates because I have been abroad for some time. Before I upgraded today I was running core_2021.9.5 with a0d7b954_zwavejs2mqtt_0.24.1 and now I am running core-2021.11.4 with a0d7b954-zwavejs2mqtt_0.29.0

Please advice me how to get it running again!

Regards,
Kenneth

Synology has given several other users a real hard time with using a VM and mapping the device through. The Synology OS seems pretty locked down and can be difficult to pass the device through to the VM reliably, including some recent updates to Synology that may have messed things up. Take a look at this thread for some ideas. The user was trying to use both a zwave and zigbee stick to work and this was creating a lot of issues for them.

Thank you for your hint Tim!

Could be something strange around Synology. I updated that as well yesterday, but it worked fine until I updated HA today. It has worked fine on VM since April when I changed from docker to VM. I changed because there where some problems with HA on docker on Synology which I can’t fully recall. It was something that HA didn’t support docker because it was too old or something.

From your link I can see that all the discussions are around docker, not VM. So HA on docker on Synology is working (almost) fine now? Do you run supervised?

Do you suggest to go back to VM now? It takes less resources so it would would be good.

Thanks!
Kenneth

Yes that’s definitely true, so it won’t be an exact β€œapples to apples” compare to your install. Just thought there could be some ideas there that might help.

I don’t run synology myself, and I run Home Assistant container without the supervisor, for the reasons I mentioned here - The benefits of docker / core / rasp - #4 by mwav3. I think the issues with Synology though are on USB pass through with either a docker container or VM. Hopefully someone more familiar with synology can chime in if there are any other potentially β€œeasier” fixes.

If you run Home Assistant on a VM, your USB has to pass through multiple β€œlayers”. If you run a supervised Home Assistant install, that still uses docker, the supervisor is just managing all the docker containers (Core and addons) in the background for you so you don’t have to know anything about how docker works, but its still there. Its like older versions of windows that ran on DOS - DOS was still there the user just didn’t have to type in all the commands on the command line anymore.

But that creates an additional failure point. Your zstick now has to pass through all these layers:
HostOS(Synology) β†’ Home Assistant VM β†’ Home Assistant OS running in VM β†’ ZwaveJS running in docker on the Home Assistant OS running in the VM :upside_down_face:

Throw in the quirks of synology, and it can make it that much more difficult. Its not the way I would do it, as a failure at any point will result in the failure to open the serial port error you have above and bring down the zwave network, but many seem to run it this way just fine with no issues. I just run zwavejs2mqtt in docker, and the host OS is Ubuntu and I haven’t had any issues with my zstick mapping.

I wouldn’t if you could avoid it. If you are familiar with docker and can install Home Assistant container, and the docker version of the addons you are using, I personally think that is the way to go as it gives you more control over everything and is more efficient. Docker alone will use less resources then running the docker environment a supervised Home Assistant install needs inside of a VM. Supervised in a VM is definitely easier though - so more people tend to go this route, and resources shouldn’t be too much of a concern as a synology NAS should be powerful enough to run it either way.

If you just run Home Assistant container, then you have to install zwavejs2mqtt in another docker container to get zwave, as you lose the addon store running Home Assistant container. Its tougher to setup, but at least now you are just passing the zstick through docker and eliminating one of the potential failure points.

Another option you can consider is you can keep your Home Assistant supervised install, and instead of using the zwavejs addon, try installing zwavejs2mqtt right on docker in the Synology (not in the VM). Here’s the install instructions for putting up zwavejs2mqtt in docker

https://zwave-js.github.io/zwavejs2mqtt/#/getting-started/docker

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Thanks a lot for the extensive reply! Much appreciated!

I see that I typed an error above. I wrote Do you suggest to go back to VM now? but wanted to write Do you suggest to go back to docker now? since I am on VM :upside_down_face:. But you managed to give a good answer anyway. :grinning:

I will consider going back to docker again but first try your last suggestion. I am already running some docker images in the Synology as well as a second instance of zwavejs2mqtt on an Raspberry Pie in the garage so having it β€œoutside” hassio is no news for me. Good suggestion, but it has to be tomorrow!

Again, thanks a lot!
Kenneth

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FYI, I found out what has happened.

When I updated the Synology yesterday I updated both the OS and the VMM. In the latest VMM (2.5.3) the USB is not mounted automatically and have to be mounted in the VMM in the following way:

  • In the menu to the left, Select β€œVirtual Machine”
  • Mark your VM
  • Under Action, select Edit
  • Select the tab Others
  • Under USB device, you will find the USB devices. Select the one you use in that VM.

After a while all devices started to show up in the Z-wave control panel :grinning:

I can’t understand why it worked until I updated HA today but it doesn’t matter as long as I got it working again.

/Kenneth

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Glad it was an easy fix, I’m sure this will help someone else that runs into this.