Set up Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi

This tutorial describes how to install Home Assistant Core on Raspberry Pi to get started with Home Assistant and set up the development environment.

Home Assistant is a Python-based open-source smart home system. It supports connection to smart devices across different platforms, which allows you to control a connected home with one system. We use Home Assistant Core (recommended for developers) to install Home Assistant OS and runs the program in Ubuntu Server. For more information about other installation methods, see the instructions on Home Assistant.

Preparation

Prerequisites

You have installed Python on your system. Python 3.8.0 or later is recommended.

Prepare hardware and software

Hardware/Software	Description
Computer	A computer
Device to run Home Assistant	Raspberry Pi 3 or later This tutorial uses the 64-bit Raspberry Pi 4, with 8 GB RAM.
Environment	Ubuntu Server 20.04.2 LTS
Wireless router	One piece
microSD card	One piece
SD Card reader	One piece

Steps

Install the environment

1. Download and install Raspberry Pi Imager 1.6.

2. Insert the microSD card into your computer.

3. Start Raspberry Pi Imager 1.6 and click CHOOSE OS.

4. In the Operating System dialog box, select Other general purpose OS > Ubuntu > Ubuntu Server 20.04.2 LTS (RPi 3/4/400).

5. On the page of Raspberry Pi Imager 1.6, click CHOOSE STORAGE and select your microSD card.

6. Click WRITE to flash the SD card with Raspberry Pi Imager.

7. Waiting for flashing completed.

8. Remove the microSD card from your Mac and insert it into the Raspberry Pi.

Connect Raspberry Pi to the internet

You can connect Raspberry Pi to the internet through a wired Ethernet connection (recommended) or a Wi-Fi network.

• Wired connection Use an Ethernet cable to connect Raspberry Pi to the router.
• Wi-Fi connection
  1. Insert the flashed microSD card into your computer.
  2. Open Finder on your Mac and click Locations > system-boot.
  3. Open the network-config file with a text editor. Change the myhomewifi field to the SSID of your router and the S3kr1t field to the password of your router.

     wifis:
         wlan0:
             dhcp4: true
             optional: true
             access-points:
             myhomewifi:
                 password: "S3kr1t"
     

  4. Save the file and exit.
  5. Insert the microSD card into Raspberry Pi.

Start Ubuntu Server

1. Find your Raspberry Pi's IP address on the local network from your router setup page. This tutorial uses 192.168.1.140 as an example.
2. Make sure your computer and Raspberry Pi connect to the same LAN. Execute the following command to connect to Raspberry Pi.

   ssh [email protected]
   

3. Enter the default password and then enter the new password twice to reset the password.

   Note: The default username and password of Ubuntu Server both are ubuntu.

Install Home Assistant

Install dependency

Execute the following three commands respectively to install dependencies. The installation process will take some time.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade -y

sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-dev python3-venv python3-pip libffi-dev libssl-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev autoconf build-essential libopenjp2-7 libtiff5 --fix-missing

Create virtual environment

1. Create a directory for the installation of Home Assistant.

   mkdir ~/hass
   

2. Create and activate the virtual environment for Home Assistant.

   1. Go to the directory.

      cd ~/hass
      

   2. Create virtual environment.

      python3 -m venv .
      

   3. Activate virtual environment.

      source bin/activate
      

Install Home Assistant

1. Install Python package.

   python3 -m pip install wheel
   

2. Install Home Assistant Core.

   pip3 install homeassistant
   

Start Home Assistant

Execute the following command to start Home Assistant.

hass

When you start Home Assistant for the first time, the system will create ~/.homeassistant directory to store configuration files and install required dependencies. This process will take some time.

Visit http://192.168.1.140:8123 in a browser by using a device in the same LAN. If the Home Assistant homepage appears, it indicates that installation is successful.

Note: The IP address here is only for demonstration. Use your Raspberry Pi's IP address.

Install Samba

We use Samba to share .homeassistant directory in the LAN. You can modify the .homeassistant file directly on your computer, which will help the development of drivers.

1. Install Samba.

   sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin
   

2. Configure smb.conf file.

   Note: Yo must specify an absolute path to smb.conf, such as /home/ubuntu/.homeassistant.

   1. Edit the file.

      sudo vi /etc/samba/smb.conf
      

   2. Add the following line of code to the bottom of the configuration file.

      [pi]
      path = /home/ubuntu/.homeassistant
      writeable=Yes 
      create mask=0777 
      directory mask=0777 
      public=no 
      

   3. Save the file.
3. Add a Samba account.

   Note: When you use the sudo smbpasswd -a command to create a Samba user, the account must be a Linux system account, such as ubuntu.

   1. Execute the following command line.

      sudo smbpasswd -a ubuntu
      

   2. Enter a password, such as a123456.
4. Restart Samba to make the configuration effective.

   sudo systemctl restart smbd
   

Once Samba is installed, the development environment is set up.

Access Home Assistant folder through Samba

1. Open Finder on your Mac.

2. In the top-left corner of the screen, click Go > Connect to Server.

3. In the dialog box, enter your Raspberry Pi's IP address and click Connect.

   smb://192.168.1.140/pi
   

   Note: The IP address here is only for demonstration. Use your Raspberry Pi's IP address.

   

4. In the dialog box, enter the account and password of the Samba user. See the following example.

   • Name: ubuntu
   • Password: a123456

5. Click Connect to access the Home Assistant folder shared with Raspberry Pi.

   

Summary

You can access the Home Assistant folder through Samba and proceed with the development of drivers. For more information, see Develop Tuya-Compatible Home Assistant Drivers.