Is it possible to run HA on the same RPi with a touch screen and have it display my dashboards...etc. Or do I have to run HA on a RPi and then run another RPi with the touch screen?
rm
Yes, one Pi can do both, but it depends on which HA install you run.
The catch: the standard Home Assistant OS image is headless by design. It runs the server only, with no desktop, so out of the box it can't open a browser on an attached touchscreen and show your dashboard. That's where the "do I need a second Pi?" question comes from.
Three realistic paths:
1. Two devices (most common, most reliable). Run HAOS on the Pi as a pure server, then point a separate screen at it: a cheap tablet, an old phone, or a second Pi running Chromium kiosk. Tablets with Fully Kiosk Browser are the go-to for wall panels. The server stays an appliance (auto-updates, easy backups) and the display is disposable.
2. One Pi, full OS. Install Raspberry Pi OS (desktop), run Home Assistant in Docker, then launch chromium-browser --kiosk http://localhost:8123 on boot. One board does everything. Trade-off: you maintain the OS yourself. Use a Pi 4 with 4GB+, since Chromium is heavy and a Pi 3 will crawl.
3. One Pi, HAOS + a kiosk add-on. Community kiosk add-ons exist that bolt a local display onto HAOS, but they're fiddly and less supported. Only worth it if you specifically want HAOS and a local screen on the same board.
My take: if reliability matters, go with #1 (HAOS + a tablet). If you want a single-board appliance and don't mind a little Linux upkeep, go with #2 (Pi OS + Docker + Chromium kiosk). Both get you the dashboards; the difference is how much OS babysitting you sign up for. The official 7" DSI touchscreen works with either, and you can add touch-to-wake so it sleeps until you tap it.
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Nice explanation....thanks for that.
While 1/2 are ideal, I have a Pi mounted to a 7" touch screen...I think I'll give 3 a walk around the park and if it fails back to 1.
ron
Hi Ron, be aware about consequences of running the container version: About installation types
The simplest way to answer is this: “You will need two computers, but one or both can be virtual machines. One physical machine can host any reasonable number of virtual machines.”
The physical host needs enough resources to run both virtual machines. A Pi is borderline for this, and also the virtual machine software available for Pi is not nearly as nice as what runs on Intel CPUs. A Pi5 with 8GB RAM should work. I would first install some generic version of Linux and then one of the virtual machine apps like VirtualBox and then HAOS on one VM and some light Linux on the other to host the dashboard.
You could run the dashboard directly on the host Linux system, but if you have to do something even as simple as update the software, you would have to stop HAOS and annoy everyone in the house. They yell at you, “the lights don’t work, again.” and you have to explain you are updating the dashboard. This sounds like nonsense to them as why should a dashboard update mean the kitchen is dark. They are right, it is nonsense. Using another VM allows you to mess with the dashboard PC without needing to disable HAOS. But even with two VMs, a locked-up dash might require a power cycle and then you have to explain why the kitchen is dark yet one more time.
I can tell you the second time someone tries to turn on a light in a dark room and it doesn't work, they will insist that the whole Home Assistant thing be dumped in the ocean. So you’d be best to “decouple” HA from any dependencies. Make it as standalone as you can and then have multiple failsafes and backups
I gave it a go, hated it...totally in the 2 computer camp from here on. Pi4 on the wall with the touch screen and a Pi5 running HA...flawless, easy and maintainable. This stuff is all installed in my camper van to monitor temps, Victron shunt, Victron solar controller, pleasantly surprised to see HA show up on my Android Auto. Thank you all for the advice.
I run HA in a Virtual Box which runs on Ubuntu linux (link) on a refurbished PC.
I can access HA from my cell phone and any of my computers, including the host. The cost of one RPi (With power supply and case) is about the same as a refurbished PC. The refurb power requirements are about 18W, as opposed to 10W for one RPi, so this is the same, too. I really don't see the advantage of running two RPi's (unless you're living in your car or a tiny house).
The downside to an RPi is that the SD card goes bad (fixed by spending the cost of another refurb to install NVMe)
Seriously, I would like to know why RPi's are better.
Good points, I replaced the Pi's I had on my telescopes with refurbed Dell minis -- love it...I had the Pi's from other projects and my van has 12KW of lithium batteries (power not much of an issue).