Sun.sun elevation stuck, not updating

Configuration
1

I recently switched my HA server from a docker install (Umbrel node) to a VirtualBox VM (an old MacMini). A few odd things are happening but the most frustrating is sun.sun elevation refuses to update unless I manually reload the entity from the Settings > Devices & Services page.

Sun elevation was working as expected in my old docker instance (e.g: updating value every few minutes around dusk/dawn etc). but elevation is not updating at all, any time of day, in the new VM setup.

The only major change was going from version 2022.11 to 2023.3 – the VM install was fresh, and installed from a backup of the docker.

Any suggestions were to resolve this? Other information from the Sun is updating (Next Setting, Next Rising etc.) but not elevation! Thanks in advance.

2

Did you set a timezone? I know that changed in 2022.12
Also check if your location is set there

1 Like
3

Hi – thanks for the suggestion – I tried all the time zone / location based stuff, plus numerous restarts / VM reboots and yaml cleanses etc. No impact sadly.

Meanwhile … I think I got sun elevation working again? I’ll report back in a day or so if true, but I deleted the HA database file, did a complete VM reboot and so far it’s updating values as I would expect. Via ssh / CLI:

</s> <s>cd config</s> <s>rm home-assistant_v2.db</s> <s>

I did not copy the database file from my old install, so I don’t know if this problem arose from the migration or what.

Nope. Elevation values updated during the afternoon but has been frozen around 9Deg well past sunset.

4

Fixed. Here is the root cause of the problem and the solution:

https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues/71278

I needed to make a change to the default VirtualBox machine settings:

System > Acceleration > Paravirtualization Interface = None

Time triggers and sun triggers are now working as expected.

5

It might be of interest for you to review the following topic which takes a deep-dive into how that parameter’s value may affect the clock. I think if you start from this post and continue from there it will reveal that the user’s problem with clock-drift (VM on an iMac) was fixed by setting Paravirtualization to “Legacy”.

If “None” works for you then all’s well but if you start noticing clock-drift then keep that topic’s discussion in mind.

1 Like
6

@123 Good point – & thanks for bringing it up – will definitely bear in mind.