Z-Wave JS mysteriously failing

I’ve been running Home Assistant with an Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 USB to control my Z-Wave network for years now, no major problems other than the occasional need for a reboot, and just in the past couple weeks it stopped working. I still see the device in /dev/serial/by-id, but for some reason it won’t load, the log keeps spamming this:

2024-10-13 21:28:31.758 INFO APP: GET /assets/Debug-ByEht0KP.js 200 1.094 ms - 16471
2024-10-13 21:28:33.001 INFO Z-WAVE: Client closed
2024-10-13 21:28:33.008 INFO Z-WAVE: Connecting to /dev/serial/by-id/usb-0658_0200-if00
2024-10-13 21:28:33.013 INFO Z-WAVE: Setting user callbacks
2024-10-14T04:28:33.014Z DRIVER   ███████╗        ██╗    ██╗  █████╗  ██╗   ██╗ ███████╗          ██╗ ███████╗
                                  ╚══███╔╝        ██║    ██║ ██╔══██╗ ██║   ██║ ██╔════╝          ██║ ██╔════╝
                                    ███╔╝  █████╗ ██║ █╗ ██║ ███████║ ██║   ██║ █████╗            ██║ ███████╗
                                   ███╔╝   ╚════╝ ██║███╗██║ ██╔══██║ ╚██╗ ██╔╝ ██╔══╝       ██   ██║ ╚════██║
                                  ███████╗        ╚███╔███╔╝ ██║  ██║  ╚████╔╝  ███████╗     ╚█████╔╝ ███████║
                                  ╚══════╝         ╚══╝╚══╝  ╚═╝  ╚═╝   ╚═══╝   ╚══════╝      ╚════╝  ╚══════╝
2024-10-14T04:28:33.015Z DRIVER   version 13.8.0
2024-10-14T04:28:33.016Z DRIVER   
2024-10-14T04:28:33.017Z DRIVER   starting driver...
2024-10-14T04:28:33.018Z DRIVER   opening serial port /dev/serial/by-id/usb-0658_0200-if00
2024-10-13 21:28:39.900 INFO APP: GET /health/zwave 301 0.566 ms - 162
2024-10-14T04:28:42.044Z DRIVER   Failed to open the serial port: Error: No such file or directory, cannot open 
                                  /dev/serial/by-id/usb-0658_0200-if00
2024-10-14T04:28:42.047Z DRIVER   destroying driver instance...
2024-10-13 21:28:42.048 INFO Z-WAVE: Restarting client in 15 seconds, retry 25

Any ideas?

It says it cannot open the serial port so start there. It can’t see your usb. Why?

No idea. It shows up in the host machine, when I type:

> ls /dev/serial/by-id
usb-0685_0200_if00

The host machine is running VirtualBox with the HomeAssistant OS running directly on it, so I don’t really know how to diagnose anything further from within there, but VirtualBox shows the USB device as “Sigma Designs, Inc.” and it’s enabled.

You need to work out whether the device from the host machine is being passed in to the VM, i.e. so that HAOS can see it. Here is mine from HA terminal, with output from lsusb. If HA cannot see the device then you will need to try and troubleshoot VirtualBox not passing it in.