Windows
Install Home Assistant Operating System
Download the appropriate image
-
VirtualBox (.vdi)
-
KVM (.qcow2)
-
Vmware Workstation (.vmdk)
-
Hyper-V (.vhdx)
After downloading, decompress the image. If the image comes in a ZIP file, for example, unzip it.
Follow this guide if you already are running a supported virtual machine hypervisor. If you are not familiar with virtual machines, we recommend installing Home Assistant OS directly on a Home Assistant Yellow, a Raspberry Pi, or an ODROID.
Create the virtual machine
Load the appliance image into your virtual machine hypervisor. (Note: You are free to assign as much resources as you wish to the VM, please assign enough based on your add-on needs).
Minimum recommended assignments:
- 2 GB RAM
- 32 GB Storage
- 2vCPU
All these can be extended if your usage calls for more resources.
Hypervisor specific configuration
- Create a new virtual machine.
- Select type Linux and version Linux 2.6 / 3.x / 4.x (64-bit).
- Select Use an existing virtual hard disk file, select the unzipped VDI file from above.
- Edit the Settings of the VM and go to System > Motherboard. Select Enable EFI.
- Then go to Network > Adapter 1. Choose Bridged Adapter and choose your network adapter.
By default, VirtualBox does not free up unused disk space. To automatically shrink the vdi disk image
the discard
option must be enabled using your host machine’s terminal:
VBoxManage storageattach <VM name> --storagectl "SATA" --port 0 --device 0 --nonrotational on --discard on
More details can be found about the command can be found here.
- Create a new virtual machine in
virt-manager
. - Select Import existing disk image, provide the path to the QCOW2 image above.
- Choose Generic Default for the operating system.
- Check the box for Customize configuration before install.
- Under Network Selection, select your bridge.
- Under customization select Overview > Firmware > UEFI x86_64: …. Make sure to select a non-secureboot version of OVMF (does not contain the word
secure
,secboot
, etc.), e.g.,/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd
. - Click Add Hardware (bottom left), and select Channel.
- Select device type: unix.
- Select name: org.qemu.guest_agent.0.
- Finally, select Begin Installation (upper left corner).
virt-install --name hass --description "Home Assistant OS" --os-variant=generic --ram=2048 --vcpus=2 --disk <PATH TO QCOW2 FILE>,bus=sata --import --graphics none --boot uefi
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 30c9:0052 Luxvisions Innotech Limited Integrated RGB Camera
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 1a86:55d4 QinHeng Electronics SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 06cb:00fc Synaptics, Inc.
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 8087:0033 Intel Corp.
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
You can recognize the Sonoff dongle at Bus 003 Device 003
. So the command to install the VM will become:
virt-install --name hass --description "Home Assistant OS" --os-variant=generic --ram=2048 --vcpus=2 --disk <PATH TO QCOW2 FILE>,bus=sata --import --graphics none --boot uefi --hostdev 003.003
Note that this configuration (bus 003, device 003) is just an example, your dongle could be on another bus and/or with another device ID.
Please check the correct IDs of your USB dongle with lsusb
.
- Create a new virtual machine.
- Select Custom, make it compatible with the default of Workstation and ESX.
- Choose I will install the operating system later, select Linux > Other Linux 5.x or later kernel 64-bit.
- Select Use Bridged Networking.
- Select Use an existing virtual disk and select the VMDK file above.
After the VM has been created, go to Settings > Options > Advanced. Under Firmware type select UEFI.
- Create a new virtual machine.
- Select Generation 2.
- Select Connection > Your Virtual Switch that is bridged.
- Select Use an existing virtual hard disk and select the VHDX file from above.
After creation, go to Settings > Security and deselect Enable Secure Boot.
Start up your virtual machine
- Start the virtual machine.
- Observe the boot process of the Home Assistant Operating System.
- Once completed, you will be able to reach Home Assistant on homeassistant.local:8123. If you are running an older Windows version or have a stricter network configuration, you might need to access Home Assistant at homeassistant:8123 or
http://X.X.X.X:8123
(replace X.X.X.X with your ’s IP address).
Help us improve Home Assistant
Have you just installed Home Assistant? The Home Assistant team is looking to talk to you to understand how the installation went.With the Home Assistant Operating System installed and accessible, you can continue with onboarding.
Onboarding
Install Home Assistant Core
Install WSL
To install Home Assistant Core on Windows, you will need to use the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Follow the WSL installation instructions and install Ubuntu from the Windows Store.
As an alternative, Home Assistant OS can be installed in a Linux guest VM. Running Home Assistant Core directly on Windows is not supported.
This is an advanced installation process, and some steps might differ on your system. Considering the nature of this installation type, we assume you can handle subtle differences between this document and the system configuration you are using. When in doubt, please consider one of the other installation methods, as they might be a better fit instead.
This guide assumes that you already have an operating system setup and have installed Python 3.11 (including the package python3-dev
) or newer.
Install dependencies
Before you start, make sure your system is fully updated, all packages in this guide are installed with apt
, if your OS does not have that, look for alternatives.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
Install the dependencies:
sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-dev python3-venv python3-pip bluez libffi-dev libssl-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev autoconf build-essential libopenjp2-7 libtiff5 libturbojpeg0-dev tzdata ffmpeg liblapack3 liblapack-dev libatlas-base-dev
The above-listed dependencies might differ or missing, depending on your system or personal use of Home Assistant.
Create an account
Add an account for Home Assistant Core called homeassistant
.
Since this account is only for running Home Assistant Core the extra arguments of -rm
is added to create a system account and create a home directory.
sudo useradd -rm homeassistant
Create the virtual environment
First we will create a directory for the installation of Home Assistant Core and change the owner to the homeassistant
account.
sudo mkdir /srv/homeassistant
sudo chown homeassistant:homeassistant /srv/homeassistant
Next up is to create and change to a virtual environment for Home Assistant Core. This will be done as the homeassistant
account.
sudo -u homeassistant -H -s
cd /srv/homeassistant
python3 -m venv .
source bin/activate
Once you have activated the virtual environment (notice the prompt change to (homeassistant) homeassistant@raspberrypi:/srv/homeassistant $
) you will need to run the following command to install a required Python package.
python3 -m pip install wheel
Once you have installed the required Python package, it is now time to install Home Assistant Core!
pip3 install homeassistant==2023.10.1
Start Home Assistant Core for the first time. This will complete the installation for you, automatically creating the .homeassistant
configuration directory in the /home/homeassistant
directory, and installing any basic dependencies.
hass
You can now reach your installation via the web interface on http://homeassistant.local:8123
.
If this address doesn’t work you may also try http://localhost:8123
or http://X.X.X.X:8123
(replace X.X.X.X with your machines’ IP address).
When you run the hass
command for the first time, it will download, install and cache the necessary libraries/dependencies. This procedure may take anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes. During that time, you may get a site cannot be reached error when accessing the web interface. This will only happen the first time. Subsequent restarts will be much faster.