Problems Setting Up Home Assistant Yellow - HA OS won't install

Installation Home Assistant OS
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Hi All,

I received my HA Yellow PoE last week along with a CM4 (Model: CM4108032 - 8 GB RAM/ 32 GB eMMC/ WiFi). I have been unsuccessful in getting my system set up. I initially followed the standard directions for getting started using USB (Getting Started – Home Assistant Yellow). The process appeared to stall out during the installation (Step 10). The yellow light kept flashing in the heartbeat pattern for hours.

I tried removing power and repeating the process followed by the reinstallation directions (How to reinstall the operating system – Home Assistant Yellow) for using USB (and using both USB ports and multiple flash drives). When those processes did not work, I tried “Option 2: Reinstall Home Assistant OS using rpiboot.” Everything appeared to be normal from my PC’s end for this process.
This also got me to the same place - an endless cycle of the yellow light in the heartbeat pattern.

It may be worth noting that the PoE does not seem to be working. I’ve had to use a wall plug to power. However, the ethernet port does light up and appears to be functional. I’ve checked my router and it is functioning normally and I can connect other devices to the port with no issues. My router does show “yellow-installer” as being connected.

I can also confirm that the CM4 is properly mounted.

Am I missing something or are there any other steps to getting started that I’m missing out on? Is it possibly an issue with the HA Yellow’s ethernet port being faulty?

Thanks!

2

I also bought the Home Assistant Yellow POE kit and had many of the same issues that you’ve had, tried the same solutions and still couldn’t figure it out. I got it to install, I just couldn’t get to the startup page for HA. After 2 days of research and frustration, I finally threw in the towel and went with an existing RP4 I had on hand and a Home Assistant Sky Connect dongle. Not really what I wanted but I guess I’m not technically adept enough to solve the issue. I think my issues were related to my home network.

I sure hope you get it sorted out! I’ll follow to see if you find a workable solution.

3

The installer should really change the heartbeat pattern to solid on, then steady blinking (see Home Assistant Yellow LEDs – Home Assistant Yellow).

The fact that the system keeps blinking in a heartbeat pattern indicates an issue with the installer: Presumably it can’t connect to the internet.

If you have some Linux command line expierence, you can access the command line of the installer using the serial console:

It would be interesting to know why the installer fails to connect to the Internet. Maybe we can fix the root cause in the installer. In general, the installer just uses DHCP and tries to download https://version.home-assistant.io/stable.json to get the latest version, and download it from https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/${version}/haos_yellow-${version}.img.xz.

Alternatively, what you can do when you are using the “Option 2: Reinstall Home Assistant OS using rpiboot” steps: Instead of installing the Installer install the Home Assistant OS directly. For that, download the Yellow tar.xz image from Releases · home-assistant/operating-system · GitHub and select the file in the Raspberry Pi Imager instead of the “Home Assistant OS Installer for Yellow” from the menu.