Why is it so complex and difficult to install and maintain HomeAssistant?

I think Murphy is playing with me.
I downloaded the “tested Debian version” for my Raspberry PI4 - 8GB.
Flashed my 1TB-SSD with it.
Adapted the wpa_supplicant.conf file and also created a SSH empty file.

Starting boot of raspberry => loop on “running /scripts/local-block”

Why do I need to give all my time on configuring my tools and not to simply use them ?

Kind regards,
Dom

I downloaded the latest “Home Assistant OS”.

It requires 2 IP Addresses using 2 different MAC addresses.
My Wifi is protected on MAC address filtering, …

Where can I find or fix the MAC addresses used by HomeAssistant OS ?

Kind regards,
Dom

What nonsense

So most likely 90% of your issues are using WiFi for a server.
Also why do you use MAC filtering? That increasing security is a long dead myth. Turn off MAC filtering, reboot the Pi and you will see the IP address and MAC address and if you must you can then add the MAC address to the filter list.

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And if you really insist, you can turn it on again once you added the MAC to the filter…

I’m running HA on their “blue” device. About 60 total zwave/zigbee devices. Very stable and easy to maintain ONCE you get everything setup to your liking (my wife can attest to that part!).

The I/O performance of the SD card sucks, just because microSD cards have crappy performance. For relatively few dollars, get a USB3 / UAS (USB Attached SCSI) and plug it into one of the two USB3 ports on the Raspberry Pi4. These days, you can boot off USB devices, too. This should improve the I/O performance considerably.

As others suggested, I’m using an fanless “NUC”-style device and docker myself. I am, however, using a Pi4 with the USB booting on my 3D printer to run Octoprint. Mostly because the SD card failed from the frequent logging and image captures… the external USB3 device is much more performant and probably has superior wear-leveling for a better lifetime.

+1 on just running Docker + the Home Assistant container. If you have minimal expertise to run the host OS, this give you a lot of flexibility.

nonsense is not using 2 different MAC addresses !

  • physical MAC Address for the physical network card
  • dedicated MAC address for HA OS, MAC address that should be possible to force.

Non sense is using randomized MAC addresses.
At least for the physical host it self.

Kr,
Dom

MAC filtering is not the best protection, but, it ensure only systems I know may attempt a connection.
MAC spoofing is effectively a technique, but not known by lambda users.

Fixed MAC address is also required for DHCP reservations.

Reason why there should, at least, be a possibility to ask HA OS to retrun me that MAC address via a simple CLI command (logged as root).

Kr,
Dom

The most simple way would have been to get this info available once logged as root.

I trust solutions, never the workarounds :wink:

Kr,
Dom

Does the MAC start with 02:42:ac ?
If so, it is probably the MAC of the docker?
However, i wonder why it is exposed, docker is only used internal and has a fixed 172 IP :thinking:

It’s not a workaround!

One should be exposed as it requires an http connection, and connection ao any device connected on the LAN.

true…
i was more thinking about mac used for dhcp reservation, already forgot we were talking about mac filtering…
but if you use docking, get ready as each docker will use a new mac (provided it requires internet access)

I just need, at least, the first HA Os MAC address to be able to connect.

To be sure I’m right, here is what I did :

  • flashing SSD
  • unmount/remount SSD on my Win 10
  • create directories \config\network
  • in that subdirectory, create file my-network
    insert
[connection]
id=my-network
uuid=72111c67-4a5d-4d5c-925e-f8ee26efb3c3
type=802-11-wireless
[802-11-wireless]
mode=infrastructure
ssid=**myWiFi**
powersave=0

[802-11-wireless-security]
auth-alg=open
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk=**MySuperPwd**

[ipv4]
method=auto

[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
method=auto

[wifi]
# Values are 0 (use default), 1 (ignore/don't touch), 2 (disable) or 3 (enable).
powersave=0

Kr,
Dom

Dude, people already said it before, it is not recommended to use wifi for ha…use lan!!

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Therefor, you need to install it right the Router, which is not possible where I live.

But I found the way to get the info I’m looking for :

  • Boot
  • logon as root
  • enter command login
  • enter command nmcli

There I get my MAC address :slight_smile:

Using that one I’ve adapted my Router’s rules :slight_smile:

Kr,
Dom

Kr,
Dom

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now… to get back on the original topic…is it still complex and difficult to install and maintain HA??

  • flash image to sd/usb drive
  • turn on
  • finish initial setup
  • add add-on’s
  • configure add-on’s (if required at all)
  • create snapshot :yum:

basically that is it…

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Dominique… as you are not from the instant-gratification-generation, I assume you are not new to the concept of putting in some effort to get what you want. :yum:

I assume Docker is all new to you, so you could consider to use the IOTstack setup to get you going.
It’s basically as simple as flashing Debian to your SSD, sort out your MAC stuff, get IOTstack from Github, select the stack of containers you want to run from its menu, wait for Docker and the specified images to be created, do some app configuration, and you’re off to the races!

So you get the best of both worlds:

  • An OS that you have full access to and can manage to your heart’s content.
  • A supported install of Home Assistant, running in the same way as when you use “Home Assistant OS”. You get HA Supervisor to do the version checking and auto updates of HA components like audio (hassio_audio), while you get informed and can update HA core at your own leisure. And you have access to and can install HA add-ons, HACS etc.
    (This also has its downside, but let’s not go there in this discussion.)

And in addition:

  • During initial install IOTstack will install Docker and create your containers, such as Home Assistant, Node-Red and Mosquitto (if you want to run them as containers instead of add-ons within HA), Portainer, TasmoAdmin, InfluxDB etc.
  • Set it up all nicely with docker-compose and docker-override files, volumes etc.
  • Provide scripts to help manage the Docker environment, and do (OS) backups, DropBox uploads etc.
  • Set up log2ram if you are into that sort of thing.

In addition to the docs, more help is available on the Discord channel.

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You are right, but … you need to first be able to boot it and also … to access it :wink:

I reconfigure everything from scratch … I’ll see how I’ll succeed in.

Btw, I didn’t had to open any of the security I set up on my routers and firewall.

Thanks for your support