Dear all,
I am super new to HA. I have a bunch of home automation stuff that I wanted to bring under HA with the hope of doing a better job with automation. So I followed one of the youtube videos, and got a Raspberry Pi (RBP) 4 to run HA. I installed HA on an SSD first, then got a USB bootloader installed on an SD card, inserted it into the RBP, waited for a while, and then switched off, removed it, connected a Conbee stick with the hope to get my Zigbee devices to HA, and then switched on the RBP (connected to my router via a network cable). Waited a while and then I tried to get on to http://homeassistant:8123, but it doesn’t seem to work for me. Fing app on my phone shows Homeassistant as “Device is online” with an IP address of 192.168.x.x, and I tried http://192.168.x.x:8123, and tried with https as well, but I can’t seem to access HA. This is the first ever time I’m trying HA, so I don’t actually have an account set up on my home automation stuff for HA either. Really frustrated that I couldn’t get it to work. Hope someone could help me? Would really appreciate it. Thank you.
Addendum:
Tried without the SSD, just with the SD card. Nothing. Tried for over 3 hours now. Feel like giving up.
First off always best to follow the official guide as YouTube can often be out of date. Or at least refer to the docs before doing anything. My advice is read the docs and watch some videos.
It sounds like its installed OK as it is showing up in fing. It can take a long time to install, but you will always get to the landing page even if its not installed yet. You don’t need to set up an account prior to install, as this is done at first login.
You won’t need https:// as that is not used unless you set it up.
Is the machine you are trying to login from is on the same network?
Thank you.
I think the RPi isn’t working. What was picked by Fing as “Homeassistant” might have been the Conbee stick I connected the RPi. My RPi doesn’t appear up on the list devices shown by Fing as Raspberrypi. It’s possible that I did not install RPi properly. I used a Mac to install RPi on an SSD. I can retry it by formatting the SSD. What kind of formatting should I do to install RPi on an SSD using a Mac? I got the official Mac supported DMG from HA website to write the image on to the SSD, so not sure what went wrong. Is there anything I should do to the RPi hardware to make a hard reset? I will try to get hold of a PC if this doesn’t work out and may be I try something like Balena Etcher? Would appreciate your input. Thank you again.
If re flashing the SSD just use the guide I linked above. Use the pi imager software its easier and will get the correct image to flash, can’t make a mistake there. Don’t set up you wifi or user names though, in setting before flashing. No need to format the drive or anything as the imaging program will do that.
Okay, thanks. Then do you reckon “Homeassistant” that appeared on the list of devices was actually the RPi? Wouldn’t RPi appear as RaspberryPi or something in those lines in the device list? It seems the ‘Homeassistant’ device isn’t coming up anymore. I did switch off the RPi in order to try the installation back with an SD card, I’m just wondering if I damaged the RPi by switching it off. I’m totally new to RPi, so I’m not aware of how to get it to shut down properly. I wish I could get hold of a screen and keyboard to connect to it. What kind of a screen can I connect to it? I have the RPi installed on a NESPi4 case. I did assemble it quite correctly as far as I know.
I unfortunately don’t have a screen/keyboard with me to connect. Is there a specific screen that I can buy to connect? I have the RPi assembled on a NESPi4 case. Thank you for your help.
Yes, I would assume the “homeassistant” device showing in your list of devices is the Pi, unless you have more home assistant installations running? You can connect it to a TV using micro HDMI.
Thanks.
I did follow the above guidance. I think I used the same steps to install the imager on to the SSD previously too. I did have to make a boot loader via USB on to an SD card as I understood the RPi won’t start with an SSD unless I did that. I’ve now got the following appearing on the Fing app.
It appears that HA is offline. Not sure how to go from here. I’ll wait a bit more and see. I’ve got to go for work, so will look in to this after I come back home.
If you have any suggestions as to what to do, I would really appreciate it. I will try to buy a micro HDMI to HDMI cable and an additional keyboard too. I’m a bit disappointed that this didn’t work although I feel I followed all steps correctly.
Ok so you created the bootloader sd card from the pi imager software? You need to then boot with just this card till the screen goes green. Tricky to see with no monitor But I guess booting the pi from this bootloader card (without the ssd connected) and leaving it for a few minutes will do the job. Turn off the pi, remove SD card, plug in SSD flashed with new image and turn on PI. Watch for green flashing LED, go have a coffee or 3. After 30 minutes or so try to login to home assistant from your mac.
This may have been exactly what you were doing but always worth going back to basics in case anything was done differently, easy to make mistakes if you are not used to RPi’s
Hi Arh,
I followed the exact steps you mentioned, but still, it says ‘failed to open page’ when I go to http://homeassistant.local:8123. It however does show up as Homeassistant on my Fing devices list and it seems the device is online.
Every video on the net showed that the loading page does load after a few minutes, but mine doesn’t ever reach that and it’s always “failed to open page”.
I have ordered a cable and keyboard for this purpose. Should arrive by tomorrow. Will post here afterward.
Youtube videos are what made me go for HA as I wanted better control of my home automation stuff, but it’s quite demoralizing and frustrating when I can’t even get through the simplest of steps after following steps on the official HA page too.
You meant to say micro-HDMI to HDMI cable, isn’t it? I have a micro HDMI port in the NESPi case and HDMI in the TV, so I bought a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable (hopefully I’ll get it by tomorrow). May I ask what should I do after connecting the RPi to the TV along with a keyboard? I’m not familiar with RPi boot-up.
what you need to look for. It will be very obvious. It’s a typical Linux boot screen that should end with a statement about status of the box and the supervisor. If not you’ll have error messages staring at you. Either way let us know what it says.
Id HA says it’s up and you can’t reach it you have some flavor of a network configuration issue. If it is not up you will have an error to chase.
But I guess booting the pi from this bootloader card (without the ssd connected) and leaving it for a few minutes will do the job. Turn off the pi, remove SD card, plug in SSD flashed with new image and turn on PI. Watch for green flashing LED, go have a coffee or 3. After 30 minutes or so try to login to home assistant from your mac.