New install on Debian - some questions

Installation
1

Hi everyone, lets just get this out of the way and say im a total newbie to Linux so have mercy. But im willing to learn …just need a hand and some patience!

just starting out with hass that im running on an upgraded mac mini (2.1) ive had around running :
Intel Core2 (t7600)
4GB Ram
Debian 9 - Stretch 64Bit w/Gnome

Installed Hass using Python Virtual Environment
Is this the best way to run Hass on Debian. Should i have used a container like Docker instead?
Installation was no problem - hass ran fine. Trying to autostart using systemd
I dont think im doing it correctly.
When i type

whereis hass it returns hass:
However if i start the virtual environment - source bin/activate it returns
hass: /home/theuser/homeassistant/bin/hass

ok from what i understand i need to edit or create? (unclear here) a file using the template for Python Virtual Env. So i did the following:

sudo nano -w /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]

then paste and modify as per above whereis:

[Unit]
Description=Home Assistant
After=network-online.target
[Service]
Type=simple
User=%i
ExecStart=/home/theuser/homeassistant/bin/hass -c "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant"
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then i follow the steps outlined in the autostart document:
sudo systemctl --system daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable home-assistant@homeassistant
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/[email protected] → /etc/systemd/system/[email protected].
sudo systemctl start home-assistant@homeassistant

…and nothing happens

If i run sudo systemctl status home-assistant@homeassistant

Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/[email protected]; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2018-02-13 19:07:54 CST; 30s ago
  Process: 1654 ExecStart=/home/theuser/homeassistant/bin/hass -c /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
 Main PID: 1654 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Feb 13 19:07:52 MacDebian systemd[1]: Started Home Assistant.
Feb 13 19:07:54 MacDebian hass[1654]: Fatal Error: Specified configuration directory does not exist /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant
Feb 13 19:07:54 MacDebian systemd[1]: [email protected]: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Feb 13 19:07:54 MacDebian systemd[1]: [email protected]: Unit entered failed state.
Feb 13 19:07:54 MacDebian systemd[1]: [email protected]: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

My guess is that im either not creating the template file in the right location or the path to the hass thing is incorrect for ExecStart

2

Should be simple to fix. Get into your virtual environment:

cd /home/theuser/homeassistant
source bin/activate
hass

That will start Home Assistant and create a blank config in /home/theuser/.homeassistant.

After you’re able to access the GUI at http://localhost:8123, Ctrl+C in the terminal window to shut down Home Assistant.

You’ll need to edit the systemd service file /etc/systemd/system/[email protected] and change this line:

ExecStart=/home/theuser/homeassistant/bin/hass -c "/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant"

to

ExecStart=/home/theuser/homeassistant/bin/hass -c "/home/theuser/.homeassistant"

Then do:
sudo systemctl daemon-reload.

From then on, this:

sudo systemctl start home-assistant@homeassistant

should not return an error, and because you’ve done sudo systemctl enable home-assistant@homeassistant, HA will start on boot.

3

I run on debian with a venv and think it’s the best way*

But @flamingm0e will be along in a minute to tell you that docker is the best way¶

* for me
¶ for him

Horses for courses :wink:

Seems like the paths for the service file are wrong, so…

Do you really have a user called ‘theuser’?

Can you navigate to your .homeassistant folder and give us the path?

4

Lol. I was going to do no such thing.

1 Like
5

This did it! Thank you. It seems to boot on start now. Or at least when i access the Ip:port from my browser it loads the Hass Splash screen…however it seems to be stuck on Connecting…

Any thoughts?

also an additional question: In the autostart instructions it says:

For most systems, the file is /etc/systemd/system/home-assistant@[your user].service with [your user] replaced by the user account that Home Assistant will run as (normally homeassistant). In particular, this is the case for Ubuntu 16.04.

I just picked homeassistant to replace [your user] at random…is this correct or should i have checked what the actual user created was?! Im not sure what is meant by

replaced by the user account that Home Assistant will run as

6

haha good catch. Not its my name but for simplicity and specificity i used something benign.

7

Oh yes you should rename that file so that “theuser” follows the @ symbol. Then daemon-reload, and then start it.

8

Beauty! works like a charm! Thanks so much for your help

9

No problem! Sorry that skipped my mind when posting the instructions earlier.