What would I miss going to hass.io?

[hoyt]

I currently am running home assistant directly on my raspberry pi 3. I’m “stuck” on 0.91.0 because I’m a bit worried about upgrading python from 3.5.3. I have a number of other components on my pi that may have dependencies on an older python version and I don’t really want to refactor all of that stuff. I have a pi4 sitting doing next to nothing, and I want to migrate a few things from my 3 to the 4 anyway, so it certainly seems like the time to re-evaluate how I’ve been using home-assistant. I’ve never used docker before, but I think that would basically answer a lot of my struggles to date.

Is hass.io basically a docker container? What would I lose by going to hass.io? I assume I can still install items in the custom-components folder? I can still directly edit the .yaml files, and am not restricted to the love-lace GUI to make these changes, right?

I’m having a hard time getting my head around this because I read some blog that basically said “why to use docker instead of hass.io” and I thought hass.io was a container. I’m assuming for me, that hass.io would be the right thing, but since I’ve been running home-assistant outside of that for a while, I’m a little worried about what I would lose. Thanks!

[flamingm0e]

@hoyt

Is hass.io basically a docker container?

Hassio consists of 2 docker containers. The supervisor container which orchestrates and manages the Home Assistant docker container.

Hassio can be run in normal docker, and does not require HassOS.

@hoyt

What would I lose by going to hass.io?

Depends on what you currently require.

@hoyt

I assume I can still install items in the custom-components folder?

Yes.

@hoyt

I can still directly edit the .yaml files, and am not restricted to the love-lace GUI to make these changes, right?

Hassio is home assistant, just a different way to install it. Home Assistant is Home Assistant. You manage Home Assistant in the same fashion no matter how you installed it.

@hoyt

I’m having a hard time getting my head around this because I read some blog that basically said “why to use docker instead of hass.io” and I thought hass.io was a container.

You have a few choices when it comes to running home assistant.

Docker + regular home assistant docker image. This does not include any add-ons (which are OTHER docker images running applications that merely operate alongside Home Assistant. These are apps that you can run manually or in Docker on your own, so other than time and having to learn some Docker intricacies, there is no downside).

Docker + HassIO. This is really the best of both worlds. Install Docker and the prerequisites per the documentation on installing hassio on generic Linux install, and run the install script. You get the hassio add-ons, plus you have access to the host system and can still run any docker or app you want.

HassOS. This is the default “image” that you download for “hassio”. It is a stripped down linux OS that runs Docker and nothing else. There is no package manager, and no real access to the underlying OS, but it runs Hassio, and you can run other docker containers via Portainer add-on.

Python (preferably in a python virtual environment). This is how you are running home assistant currently.

If you are running the pip install way, as long as you have it running in a python virtual environment, you should not have any dependency issues. If you are running any of these configurations in Docker, there are zero dependency issues. The beauty of Docker is that you don’t have a dependency problem with the apps. It makes things A LOT easier.

[hoyt]

Thank you for the concise answers, that clarified a lot for me.

I think when I installed home assistant, it was so long ago that I didn’t even do a python virtual environment. I was basically playing, then thought, this thing is pretty cool and kept using it. So now I’m trying to think about it more before diving back in!

Thanks!