New HA user kind of lost in 2026.2

[rjalex (Robert Alexander)]

Dear friends,
I have just installed HAOS on a Raspberry PI 4 booting from a SSD disk and am struggling to match the many videos and resources and guides I found with the presentation of this new release of Home Assistant. Total newbie so please bear with me.

• Installation methodHome Assistant OS
• Core2026.2.3
• Supervisor2026.02.2
• Operating System17.1
• Frontend20260128.6

and am logged as Administrator.

I have bought a Sonoff iPlug S60TPF to experiment and on my iPhone I have the eWeLink app that ‘sees’ it.

On HA I managed to add a Repository for that eWeLink app (not sure I I got to the add repo dialog, cannot find it again) and now in Settings → Apps I see eWeLink Smart Home and when I launch its ‘Open WebUI’ I see a 10027339c9 discovered device but if I click on it get ‘Devices not supported’, also cannot find any screen usable to enter that long lived token

How can I get this plug to show up in my HA

Thanks a bunch

[boheme61]

@rjalex

cannot find any screen usable to enter that long lived token

If You mean HA Long LIved Token , click your ha Profile and choose Security(in top), and scroll down

PS: After that restart your HA, if you didn’t after installing the eWelink app

[rjalex (Robert Alexander)]

Thank you very much. I have found it. But that is not the real problem.

I am not managing to add that first ‘real’ device to HA in any way.

As I written above I have added eWeLink App but am stuck there.

The device itself is working and shows up in the iPhone eWeLink cloud app, but I haven’t been able to add it to my HA.

[parautenbach (Pieter Rautenbach)]

Since you’re just starting out, I would recommend that you try a non-cloud integration be avoid vendor lock-in. One option is the SonoffLAN integration that will give you local control. Alternatively, and if you’re up for some hardware changes, flash it with Tasmota or ESPHome. If all of this is too technical, I would rather invest in other devices (my personal preference is Shelly, for WiFi or Bluetooth). You just started out, so you can still change direction.

I didn’t check your specific device’s compatibility with anything I mentioned.

Also check the cookbook for some great starter docs.

The Home Assistant Cookbook - Index

A collection of posts on how to perform common tasks and deal with common problems. This Guide is intended for those new to Home Assistant, those that are struggling for answers on some subjects, and those in troubleshooting mode. All of the Home Assistant Posts are made by Community Members and most are posted in Community Guides for your convenience. Getting Started With The Forum Discourse New User Guide (this forum uses the Discourse software) Hands-on Practical Courses to learn Disc…

[rjalex (Robert Alexander)]

Pieter thank you so much for trying to help. Unluckily I am still in the ‘lost at sea’ stage

This is the current interface with what I understand has substituted ‘Integrations’. A search there does not return any results with ‘Sonoff’.

So you can click on the three vertical dots up right and get ‘Repositories’ and ‘Registries’ as possible choices and I tried the following with GitHub - AlexxIT/SonoffLAN: Control Sonoff Devices with eWeLink (original) firmware over LAN and/or Cloud from Home Assistant

but get 'not a valid add-on repository. I note that this github repo does NOT have a ‘repository.json’ file its root.

Ideas on how to install this integration with the new interface?

Again thank you.

[parautenbach (Pieter Rautenbach)]

Ah, the good old integrations vs add-ons confusion.

Have a look here: Integrations, add-ons and custom integrations.

The SonoffLAN repo contains an integration. Integrations are the bit of software that connects your HA to physical devices (like your Sonoff) and services (like a weather API). Integrations are a kind of custom component (custom components are either custom integrations or custom cards for the UI). Add-ons are (almost always) standalone software that can work alongside HA.

In order to install SonoffLAN, you first need to install HACS (HACS is kind of a special one, since it requires an add-on if you run HAOS, as well as an integration). I would regardless recommend that you install HACS, for the world it opens for HA options (there are many quality 3rd party integrations).

So, roughly, your steps should be:

1. Install the HACS add-on.
2. Install the HACS integration (you’ll need a GitHub account). Make sure to restart.
3. Install SonoffLAN from the HACS page from within your HA. Make sure to restart.

SonoffLAN is a listed HACS integration. In some other cases you’ll need to add a custom repository first from within HACS.

[rjalex (Robert Alexander)]

Dear Pieter,
I am really grateful for your help and also feel soooo dumb, but that is where I am stuck now

When I try to install HACS I get the

screen as expected and the local HA URL is correct (I can enter it in my browser and it will open http://homeassistant.local:8123/home/overview correctly), but if I then click the blue ‘Open Link’ button I get the following error:

Any ideas as to what am I missing to isntall HACS?

Thanks a lot again.

Robert

[rjalex (Robert Alexander)]

UPDATE: this thread helps me https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1r9nzh1/having_trouble_installing_hacs/

[parautenbach (Pieter Rautenbach)]

Ok great, so you got it installed?

Unfortunately, I don’t run HAOS myself (I run HA Container, so it works a little differently for me) and it’s been many years since I’ve installed HACS.