Hi folks - I’ve been tinkering and got this working with NTFS formatted drive, so thought I’d do a quick ‘how-to’ in the simplest terms I can - mostly so I have something to come back to if I need it!
Working on:
Home Assistant 2022.9.0
Supervisor 2022.08.6
Operating System 8.5
Frontend 20220907.0 - latest
- Format a USB and call it CONFIG. Create a folder inside called udev. Create a text file and call it:
80-mount-usb-to-media-by-label.rules
Make sure you overwrite the .txt file extension. Open this with notepad, and paste the following in
This version is if you are booting from an SD Card
#
# udev rule
# Mount USB drive to the media directory using the partition name as mount point
#
# Description:
# Created for Home Assistant OS, this rule mounts any USB drives
# into the Hassio media directory (/mnt/data/supervisor/media).
# When a USB drive is connected to the board, the rule creates one directory
# per partition under the media directory. The newly created partition is named
# as the partition name. If the partition does not have a name, then the following
# name format is used: "usb-{block-name}" where the block name is sd[a-z][0-9].
#
# Note 1:
# The rule name is always prefixed with a number. In this case, the rule uses 80.
# This represents the order of the rule when multiple rules exists in udev.
# Low numbers run first, high numbers run last. However, low numbers do not have all
# the facilities than high numbers may have.
# For this rule to run properly, use numbers equal or greater than 80.
#
# Note 2:
# This rule will skip mounting the 'CONFIG' USB key.
# https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/blob/a6445af71282045c2ea92f1dea8d2f9e518bd008/Documentation/configuration.md
#
# Note 3:
# This rule will mount the OS partitions if the OS is sorted on a USB drive (i.e. USB booting).
# To prevent this issue from happening, update the rule to skip the booting USB drive.
# See the CAUTION message below.
#
# Source of inspiration:
# https://www.axllent.org/docs/auto-mounting-usb-storage/
#
# Useful links:
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Udev
#
# udev commands:
# - Restart udev to reload new rules:
# udevadm control --reload-rules
# - List device attributes of sdb1:
# udevadm info --attribute-walk --name=/dev/sdb1
# - List environment variables of sdb1:
# udevadm info /dev/sdb1
# - Trigger add/remove event for sdb1:
# udevadm trigger --verbose --action=add --sysname-match=sdb1
# udevadm trigger --verbose --action=remove --sysname-match=sdb1
#
# Filter on block devices, exit otherwise
# CAUTION: Change to 'sd[a-z][0-9]' if booting from a USB drive (e.g.: sda)
KERNEL!="sd[b-z][0-9]", GOTO="abort_rule"
# Skip none USB devices (e.g.: internal SATA drive)
ENV{ID_PATH}!="*-usb-*", GOTO="abort_rule"
# Import the partition info into the environment variables
IMPORT{program}="/usr/sbin/blkid -o udev -p %N"
# Exit if partition is not a filesystem
ENV{ID_FS_USAGE}!="filesystem", GOTO="abort_rule"
# Exit if this is the 'CONFIG' USB key
ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}=="CONFIG", GOTO="abort_rule"
# Get the partition name if present, otherwise create one
ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}!="", ENV{dir_name}="%E{ID_FS_LABEL}"
ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}=="", ENV{dir_name}="usb-%k"
# Determine the mount point
ENV{mount_point}="/mnt/data/supervisor/media/%E{dir_name}"
# If filesystem is ntfs, use the ntfs3 driver, so we get rw support
# Home Assistant Operating System 8.0 or later required (linux kernel 5.15)
ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}=="ntfs", ENV{fstype}="-t ntfs3"
ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}!="ntfs", ENV{fstype}="-t auto"
# Mount the device on 'add' action (a.k.a. plug the USB drive)
ACTION=="add", RUN{program}+="/usr/bin/mkdir -p %E{mount_point}", RUN{program}+="/usr/bin/systemd-mount %E{fstype} --no-block --automount=no --collect $devnode %E{mount_point}"
# Umount the device on 'remove' action (a.k.a unplug or eject the USB drive)
ACTION=="remove", ENV{dir_name}!="", RUN{program}+="/usr/bin/systemd-umount %E{mount_point}", RUN{program}+="/usr/bin/rmdir %E{mount_point}"
# Exit
LABEL="abort_rule"
This version is if you are booting from an SSD via USB
#
# udev rule
# Mount USB drive to the media directory using the partition name as mount point
#
# Description:
# Created for Home Assistant OS, this rule mounts any USB drives
# into the Hassio media directory (/mnt/data/supervisor/media).
# When a USB drive is connected to the board, the rule creates one directory
# per partition under the media directory. The newly created partition is named
# as the partition name. If the partition does not have a name, then the following
# name format is used: "usb-{block-name}" where the block name is sd[a-z][0-9].
#
# Note 1:
# The rule name is always prefixed with a number. In this case, the rule uses 80.
# This represents the order of the rule when multiple rules exists in udev.
# Low numbers run first, high numbers run last. However, low numbers do not have all
# the facilities than high numbers may have.
# For this rule to run properly, use numbers equal or greater than 80.
#
# Note 2:
# This rule will skip mounting the 'CONFIG' USB key.
# https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/blob/a6445af71282045c2ea92f1dea8d2f9e518bd008/Documentation/configuration.md
#
# Note 3:
# This rule will mount the OS partitions if the OS is sorted on a USB drive (i.e. USB booting).
# To prevent this issue from happening, update the rule to skip the booting USB drive.
# See the CAUTION message below.
#
# Source of inspiration:
# https://www.axllent.org/docs/auto-mounting-usb-storage/
#
# Useful links:
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Udev
#
# udev commands:
# - Restart udev to reload new rules:
# udevadm control --reload-rules
# - List device attributes of sdb1:
# udevadm info --attribute-walk --name=/dev/sdb1
# - List environment variables of sdb1:
# udevadm info /dev/sdb1
# - Trigger add/remove event for sdb1:
# udevadm trigger --verbose --action=add --sysname-match=sdb1
# udevadm trigger --verbose --action=remove --sysname-match=sdb1
#
# Filter on block devices, exit otherwise
# CAUTION: Change to 'sd[b-z][0-9]' if booting from a USB drive (e.g.: sda)
KERNEL!="sd[b-z][0-9]", GOTO="abort_rule"
# Skip none USB devices (e.g.: internal SATA drive)
ENV{ID_PATH}!="*-usb-*", GOTO="abort_rule"
# Import the partition info into the environment variables
IMPORT{program}="/usr/sbin/blkid -o udev -p %N"
# Exit if partition is not a filesystem
ENV{ID_FS_USAGE}!="filesystem", GOTO="abort_rule"
# Exit if this is the 'CONFIG' USB key
ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}=="CONFIG", GOTO="abort_rule"
# Get the partition name if present, otherwise create one
ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}!="", ENV{dir_name}="%E{ID_FS_LABEL}"
ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}=="", ENV{dir_name}="usb-%k"
# Determine the mount point
ENV{mount_point}="/mnt/data/supervisor/media/%E{dir_name}"
# If filesystem is ntfs, use the ntfs3 driver, so we get rw support
# Home Assistant Operating System 8.0 or later required (linux kernel 5.15)
ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}=="ntfs", ENV{fstype}="-t ntfs3"
ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}!="ntfs", ENV{fstype}="-t auto"
# Mount the device on 'add' action (a.k.a. plug the USB drive)
ACTION=="add", RUN{program}+="/usr/bin/mkdir -p %E{mount_point}", RUN{program}+="/usr/bin/systemd-mount %E{fstype} --no-block --automount=no --collect $devnode %E{mount_point}"
# Umount the device on 'remove' action (a.k.a unplug or eject the USB drive)
ACTION=="remove", ENV{dir_name}!="", RUN{program}+="/usr/bin/systemd-umount %E{mount_point}", RUN{program}+="/usr/bin/rmdir %E{mount_point}"
# Exit
LABEL="abort_rule"
Plug your USB in, and navigate to:
yourHAIPaddress:8123/hassio/system/info
This will take you to the Supervisor menu that’s disappeared from the left bar in current HA versions.
In the Host box, look at the bottom for Reboot Host & Shutdown Host buttons - to the right is a burger menu, click this and ‘Import for USB’
Refresh the log below and you should see:
22-09-08 13:46:38 INFO (MainThread) [supervisor.os.manager] Synchronizing configuration from USB with Home Assistant Operating System.
22-09-08 13:46:38 INFO (MainThread) [supervisor.host.services] Restarting local service hassos-config.service
You can now unplug the USB stick and insert your drive. Give it 30 seconds then check the Media menu on the left bar - you should see your drive. You will not see any contents - Reboot HA and when it comes back up, everything will populate.
You can import these folders to the HA version of Plex Media Server. If you have Samba Share, you can access the HDD in the media folder and write files in.