Which Ubuntu version for the NUC Celeron J4005 with 4GB RAM?

Installation Home Assistant OS
1

Hi,

I decide to install HA on my old NUC 7CJYSA (Celeron J4005 with 4GB RAM).

Which Ubuntu version should be optimal for this NUC ? I’m thinking about Ubuntu 22.x Could it be even 20.x ?

Thank you.

2

That depends.

If you are installing HAOS Generic x86 - no versions of Ubuntu. The OS is supplied by home assistant.

If you are installing HAOS in a VM - any version, though as noted below many people prefer Proxmox to Ubuntu.

If you are installing HA Supervised - no versions of Ubuntu. Only Debian 12 is supported, no derivatives and you can not install any other applications. Note: there is an open discussion about depreciating this installation method.

If you are installing HA Container - any version that has python 3.13 support. It will be up to you to keep this up to date when Home Assistant moves to a new version of Python.

If you are installing HA Core - any version that has python 3.13 support. It will be up to you to keep this up to date when Home Assistant moves to a new version of Python. Note: there is an open discussion about depreciating this installation method.

2 Likes
3

And Proxmox is a better option than Ubuntu.

1 Like
4

Thank you very much for the advice.

I also wonder whether these options have significant performance differences on this slow/small NUC.

For example, Proxmox requirements:

  • Minimum 4GB of RAM (8GB or more recommended)

If not so much, I could simply choose from their features/options.

5

Unless you have a desperate need for an application that is not already in the HA add-on repository, do a HAOS install (the first one on Tom’s list). Your stress levels will be lower than most other methods.

3 Likes
6

Thank you very much.

Is it the same installation for the Raspberry Pi ? I used to do it a long time ago.

7

On the Pi, you can install container, supervised or VM, but most Pi installations will be HAOS.

I have my Home Assistant installed bare-metal HAOS on an Intel NUC i3. Any micro-PC will outperform any Raspberry Pi by every metric. You do not need a VM or container - especially if you are new to Home Assistant. Why complicate your installation with the learning curve of a VM with the port forwarding, IP bridging and RAM configurations?

For the purists- yes, Home Assistant is itself a Docker container, as are all add-ons. But HAOS manages all of the Docker issues for you. I had been using Home Assistant for a couple of years before discovering this.

1 Like
8

Not quite. See: Generic x86-64 - Home Assistant

1 Like
9

If you mean is it the same as installing on the Pi, mostly except there is an extra step to image your drive, not difficult. Like Steve, I run on an Intel NUC, I used to run on a Pi but got sick of crashes due to resource issues and worrying about SD card wear.

1 Like
10

After some trial & error, I just managed to install HAOS 14.2 on the NUC.

Here are the steps (as a record):

  1. Prepare a bootable Ubuntu Desktop 18.x USB
  2. Install a target harddisk into the NUC
  3. Boot the NUC from the USB (may need to disable Secure Boot in the BIOS)
  4. Select Try Ubuntu and wait until the Desktop appears
  5. Open Firefox and download the HAOS x86-64 image
  6. Double click the HAOS x86-64 image, and Select the target disk to be restored. Then OK.

Once it’s done, restart the NUC and it will process until the CLI command is shown.

Thank you very much for all the helps. :blush:

[Update]
HAOS requires network to be setup the first time.

I found a nice tutorial : WIFI Setup on HA CLI (by Joshua Lowcock)

Type the command:

network info

See the wifi interface name such as wlan0, in my case wlo2

Type the command with all the parameters:

network update **<interface_name>** --ipv4-method auto --wifi-auth wpa-psk --wifi-mode infrastructure --wifi-ssid **<SSID_NAME>** --wifi-psk **<WiFi_password>**

Check network info again.

PS My NUC has an eMMC 64GB storage, but it is not seen by the Ubuntu OS.

1 Like