Problems on very first start-up after fresh install

Following on from this thread regarding problems with a fresh install, I seem to have got HAS installed on my Pi in a virtual env, as detailed here.

However, when I run hass from within the virtual env, the first run never seems to complete and always ‘gets stuck’ at the same point. And I never get to the point where I can access my home assistance instance at http://<my-ip-addr>:8123 Ive left it for a much longer time than the forewarned 5-10 minutes in the guide. I actually left it for close to 1 hour.

Some configuration files exist at /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant including a configuration.yaml
Am I missing something?

2018-09-13 13:59:38 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event state_changed[L]: new_state=<state sensor.yr_symbol=3; entity_picture=https://api.met.no/weatherapi/weathericon/1.1/?symbol=3;content_type=image/png, attribution=Weather forecast from met.no, delivered by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute., friendly_name=yr Symbol @ 2018-09-13T12:59:38.092928+00:00>, old_state=<state sensor.yr_symbol=unknown; entity_picture=https://api.met.no/weatherapi/weathericon/1.1/?symbol=None;content_type=image/png, attribution=Weather forecast from met.no, delivered by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute., friendly_name=yr Symbol @ 2018-09-13T12:59:31.841610+00:00>, entity_id=sensor.yr_symbol>
2018-09-13 13:59:38 WARNING (MainThread) [homeassistant.setup] Setup of config is taking over 10 seconds.
2018-09-13 13:59:38 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.setup] Setup of domain sensor took 11.9 seconds.
2018-09-13 13:59:38 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event component_loaded[L]: component=sensor>

a bit of device info incase this is releated to my Pi not being powerful enough…?..:

pi@smart-home-pi:~ $ cat /etc/debian_version
9.4

pi@smart-home-pi:~ $ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="9"
VERSION="9 (stretch)"
ID=raspbian
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianForums"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianBugs"

pi@smart-home-pi:~ $ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
model name      : ARMv6-compatible processor rev 7 (v6l)
BogoMIPS        : 697.95
Features        : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp java tls
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x0
CPU part        : 0xb76
CPU revision    : 7

Hardware        : BCM2835
Revision        : 0010
Serial          : 00000000c5562aff

Try running top to see what is happening when hass is running. While it is installing the processor is normally at 100%, with various programs being run by homeassistant user. When the installation is finished, processor use goes down, and hass should be the only process homeassistant user is running.

Im not at all sure what happened.
I think something may have failed on the install…

I re-installed Home Assistant with --force-reinstall and then restarted home assistant from the CL in the virtual env. and it eventually seemed to start…but it did take way longer than it should. I think.

Im going to have another look tonight and if ill see the same issue probably be worth re-flashing Stretch and trying again on a fresh install.