Hi everyone,
I’ve been trying to flash HAOS onto my SONOFF iHost using the official CoreBox images (tried both 16.2 and 16.3) and keep hitting the same error with balenaEtcher: “The writer process ended unexpectedly.”
What I’ve tried (all failed with the identical error):
- 3 different SD cards: Kingston Canvas Select Plus 128GB (A1), SanDisk Ultra 64GB (U1), and Sony 128GB (U3/V60/A2 — professional grade)
- 3 connection methods: Surface Pro’s built-in microSD slot, a UGREEN USB-C hub, and a direct adapter
- Both balenaEtcher and Raspberry Pi Imager
- Ran Etcher as Administrator
- Re-downloaded the image file multiple times and verified it with 7-Zip (no corruption)
- Fully wiped the card via DiskPart (clean → new partition → exFAT format)
Every single combination fails at the same point with the same error, regardless of card, reader, or tool. My laptop has no other issues and handles other USB/flash tasks fine daily.
As a workaround I also tried the Docker-based homeassistant/armhf-hassio-supervisor image via eWeLink CUBE — it shows “Running” but port 8123 never comes up, and the logs show repeated urllib3 connection errors, likely because the container can’t reach the Docker socket through that interface.
Has anyone run into this exact “writer process ended unexpectedly” error with iHost specifically? Any known fix, or a different tool/version that’s worked for you?
Thanks in advance!
