Skip Navigation
Home Assistant Yellow - What to Expect When You're Configuring

So my Home Assistant Blue suffered a tragedy last year and I temporarily switched to using a Pi 4. Then Ameridroid had the Yellow (PoE!) available, and here I am with a Yellow, waiting for the CM4 ( CM4108032) and SSD to arrive tomorrow, and realizing I have no idea what to expect or if there is anything I should expect when I start the config and move this weekend.

Background: I've run HA for roughly four years now on Pi4, Odroid, and in Docker on my server, but since moving it to the Pi while waiting for the Yellow to come in stock, I've only done basic maintenance and working on other projects, so on a guess, I'm going to have to brush up my python and yaml. And anything that's changed that I may have missed.

This will be a scratch initial installation; after linking up my integrations and getting my naming conventions consistent, I'll start copying my yaml files and code over and decide how much of my interface I want to keep.

Any advice would be appreciated if there's anything that's very different with the Yellow hardware. I use two SmartThings Hubs for zigbee, zwave, and matter over Thread control for the most part but have been dipping my toes into direct zigbee control (just not that well yet) and trying to get direct matter over thread to work (not going well at all). And do I need my skynet dongle or Sonoff zigbee dongle or will the built in module work across the board?

1
Home Assistant Core Update 2023.12.0 - /sys/firmware no longer has model data
  • You know, I didn't think of that. I've never run an OS in docker; all I tested my data collection scripts on were my regular VM's a few times just for fun. And for that matter, most LXC containers I run in Proxmox are privileged to get around restrictions (still haven't found a way for LXC's to let me compile different architectures, though. HA may have updated their docker to current, which would explain why it happened so suddenly.

    And yes, for now, I'll just do root login to grab the information; it's technically more accurate, I am just knee-jerk distrustful of using root to the point until Proxmox and this last year, I almost forgot it existed unless there's a very weird linux problem I need it for. Thanks for this information, though; I've only just started seriously working with LXC and docker containers, so that's not an approach I woudl have considered.

  • Home Assistant Core Update 2023.12.0 - /sys/firmware no longer has model data
  • Full disclosure: I just--and I mean just--got my head wrapped around docker and containers due to installing Proxmox on my server. Right now, my Proxmox server runs a LXC container for docker, and in docker I run Handbrake and MakeMKV images that run the GUIs in a browser or run with command line. They connect to each other through mounting the LXC's /home/user into both., then added a connection to the remote shares on my other server so I can send them to my media server. Yes, I did have to map all the mountings out first before I started but hey, that's how I learn.

    Long way of saying: I am just now able to start understanding how Home Assistant works--someone said Home Assistant OS was basically really a hypervisor overseeing a lot of containers and now that I use Proxmox, that really helped--but I'm still really unfamiliar with the details.

    I installed the full Home Assistant on a dedicated Pi4, so it's the only thing it does. Until yesterday, the only part I actually interacted with was the data portion, which is where all my files are, where I configure my GUI and script, store addons, etc. The container for this portion runs on Alpine Linux; I can and have and do install/update/change/build packages I need or like to use. in there It's ephemeral; anything I do outside the data directory (it holds /config, /addons, etc) gets wiped clean on update, so I reinstall them whenever HA does an update .

    When I run my data collection scripts on my Home Assistant SBC, they take their information from the container aka Alpine Linux., including saying my OS was Alpine. All of this worked correctly up until--according to the directory dates, December 10th at 2:40 AM when the /sys/firmware was last updated and everything in it vanished, breaking the symlink to /proc/device-tree/model. This also updated the container OS to Alpine 3.19.0. Data collection runs hourly; one of my Pis ssh's into each computer to run four data collection scripts and updates a browser page I run off apache, so I can check current presence and network status and also check the OS/hardware/running services of all my computers from the browser (the services script doesn't work on Alpine yet; different structure). I didn't notice until recently because work got super busy, so I only verified availability and network status regularly.

    These are the packages I install or switch to an updated/different version the Alpine container to help with this or just have fun: -figlet (it's just cute ASCII art for an ssh banner), -iproute2 (network info, when updated has option to store network info in a variable as a json),

    • iw (wireless adapter info),
    • jq (reads and processes json files),
    • procps-ng (updated uptime package for more options),
    • sed (updated can do more than the installed one),
    • util-linux (for column command in bash),
    • wireless-tools (iwconfig, more wireless data if iw doesn't have it) (Note: I think tr may also be updated by one of these.)

    These are the ones I use for data collection that are already installed:

    • lscpu ("Model name" "Vendor ID" "Architecture" "CPU(s)" "CPU min MHz" "CPU max MHz")
    • uname (kernel)

    These are the files I access for data collection:

    • /proc/device-tree/model (Computer model)
    • /proc/meminfo (RAM)
    • /proc/uptime (Uptime)
    • /etc/os-release (Current OS data)
    • /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp (CPU temperature for all my SBCs except BeagleBone Black)

    Until this month, all of those files were accessible both before I do the package updates and after. The only one affected was maybe /proc/uptime by the uptime update to get more options. Again: I've been running these scripts or versions of them for well over a year and I test individually on each SBC before adding them to my data collection scripts to run remotely; all of these worked on every computer, including whatever SBC was running Home Assistant. (Odroid N2+ until it died a few months ago) And all of them work right now--except /proc/device-tree/model on my Home Assistant SBC. The only way I can get model info is to add an extra ssh to Home Assistant itself as root and grab the data off that file (and while I"m there, get the OS data for Home Assistant instead of Alpine), save it to my shell script directory in my data container, and have the my script process that file for my data after it gets the rest from the container.

    That's why I'm weirded out; this is one of the things that is the same on every single Linux OS I've used and on Alpine, so why on earth would this one thing change?

    This could conceivably be an Alpine issue; I downloaded Alpine 3.19.0 to run in Proxmox when I get a chance, and I kind of hope that it's a deliberate change in Alpine, because otherwise, I can't imagine why on earth the HA team would alter Alpine to break that symlink. Or they could be templating Alpine for the container each time and this time it accidentally broke. The entire thing is just so weird. Or maybe--though not likely--a bug in Alpine 3.19.0, but I doubt it; I can't possibly be the first to notice, it was released at least three weeks ago and I googled a lot.

    I'm honestly not sure it affects anything at all, but it bothers me so here we are. Though granted, it did make me finally get off my ass and figure out how to login as root into HA as well as do a badly needed refactor of my main data collection script (the one that does the ssh'ing) as well as clean and refactor my computer information scripts, so maybe it was destiny.

  • Home Assistant Core Update 2023.12.0 - /sys/firmware no longer has model data
  • Which is why I"m not sure I need a bug report. The part I have non-root access to is inside a docker container and that's all I needed to collect data. But it's such a random thing to go missing.since that core update.

  • Home Assistant Core Update 2023.12.0 - /sys/firmware no longer has model data
  • Since probably October, I've noticed some really really random problems show up that never used to. And for once, I know it wasn't me messing with the code; I took a sabbatical from HA to learn how to use Proxmox a couple of months ago. and everything worked fine. It was actually a clean install to a new Raspberry Pi as my Odroid decided to stop working and I haven't had time to learn to solder (hopefully this week, tho). I was kind of wondering if it was the Pi that was the problem.

  • Home Assistant Core Update 2023.12.0 - /sys/firmware no longer has model data
  • I know, I'm trying to write up a clear bug report on this, but I'm honestly not sure if it actually has any effect other than messing up my data collection scripts. Yeah, it's annoying the hell out of me but I've been going through the documented issues with the core and it doesn't look like anyone else noticed a problem. I've been trying to figure out if it's created by an alpine package that I can run, but not much luck there.

    Note: I enabled root for Home Assistant OS and the symlink and file are fine there.

  • Home Assistant Core Update 2023.12.0 - /sys/firmware no longer has model data

    I know how awkward that title is and I apologize.

    OS: Home Assistant 11.2

    Core: 2023.12.3

    Computer: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5

    Explanation: I run a set of data collection scripts on my home network and one of the pieces of data is getting the computer model. In all my other SBCs, the below symlink gets that data.

    Symlink: /proc/device-tree/model

    File Location: /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model

    The symlink is broken and when I went to check the firmware directory, it is completely empty. The last update date for /sys/firmware according to ls -la is December 10 at 2:40 which when I checked my backups, is when core_2023.12.0 installed.

    Attached is what should be in the firmware folder on my other Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5 right now.

    I did a find from root for either the model file or anything vaguely resembling it and I can't find it. Anyone else have this problem or is it just happening to me? Or am I missing something?

    11
    Lemmy.world active users is tapering off while other servers are gaining serious traction.
  • Manually: I had lemmy.world open in one tab and the other server's community page in the other.

  • Is it really a mass exodus? And is it really a mass exodus to lemmy?
  • Logically, I want to say no, not really, but I also would have thought the blackout and ongoing protests wouldn't really affect Reddit and they'd ignore it. Reddit itself, however, seems incredibly determined to pursue a course of action which requires performing This Does Not Affect Us At All as dramatically and publicly as possible given the slightest opportunity whether anyone cares or not. This doesn't even include the admins playing subreddit roulette that encompasses actively rebelling subs, subs deep in malicious compliance, and subs that have no idea wtf is going on they just want to talk about their weird NSFW fetish in peace.

    So no, I don't think so, but I'm beginning to wonder if Reddit thinks there is and what they're seeing on their side that I'm not.

  • What is your go-to Linux distro and why?
  • I semi-regularly distro-hop, but Xubuntu is the distro I keep coming back to between hops to take a break or when one goes (temporarily) dormant. It's currently running on my primary server/linux machine.

    Reasons: 1.) It's light on resources 2.) It's very simple and clean. 3.) It works with all the programs I use regularly; only one needs to be hand-compiled (but that one has to be compiled for literally any Linux machine). 4.) I know it. Scrub/partition/install/configure in under an hour. I can pick up any of my projects again immediately where I left off.

  • Does not having any social media presence have any negative impact on a person's social life?
  • The only reason I have social media accounts under my wallet name is to avoid anyone wondering why I'm not on social media (also: grandparents). Everyone IRL who I care enough about to actually explain know I login once a year in a separate browser (under incognito) and check every privacy setting from my checklist and update if it's important (like job change). LinkedIn I check regularly, but that's because a.) I only connect with people from work and a lot of them do think it's important to have strong networks (and they could be right, no idea) and b.) LinkedIn has an education section that my job really likes because it has free classes and when I get bored at work, I can do a quick class in something (nothing they actually want us to do; I have to work in the nightmare that is Agile, do not make me take yet another class about the benefits of this software development hellscape, thanks).

    Honestly, I try to give the impression I'm not into social media IRL; there are like, three people in my daily life who are allowed into my online life and one because we more or less both got the internet at the same time and started a mailing list together. Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of nice people IRL, but not the type I want to introduce to the friends I made online.

  • Lemmy.world active users is tapering off while other servers are gaining serious traction.
  • I kind of think that's how it's supposed to go in my made-up-right-this-second knowledge of the evolution of open source Federated social media sites. Pick the largest/most active/most variety to get your feet wet and make any weird mistakes you need to make in a crowd where you're one of many and sheer speed of posting means you'll be forgotten in like, hours. Then you get comfortable and see if this is a forever-fit or just a okay-right-now fit.

    I mean, I hard-bond to my first and pretty much settle immediately for life unless something is seriously awry, but even I made a backup in another one that I mirrored all my favorite communities in and I am seriously getting one more in a smaller, more specialized server. Yes, I do get the point of Federated, you do not need to explain, but here's the thing: intellectually I know that actually, the population of the Fediverse is orders of magnitude smaller than reddit or pretty much any other social media site, but feelings do not agree: Reddit was like a large, slightly hostile country with a lot of states you avoided always but especially between dusk and dawn; the scope of Fediverse is like being on a very small planet in an expanding universe you can watch growing in real time and it never stops. It's great, but there's something very unsettling realizing you're eight servers from home surrounded by kpop or wake up to find you posted in three communities in servers you don't recognize at two AM and if you can get a reputation for that kind of thing.

    My ADHD is living the dream, let's go, but I can see how it would throw people a little.

  • What is something really stupid you purchased that turned out far better than expected?
  • Yeah honestly, wafflemaker is one of those things that if you want waffles not in frozen form, that's pretty much your only choice. If there is a manual way to do it, I'm honestly scared of the person who worked out how and what they have to do to make it happen.

    I am tempted by your grill, though. Hmm.

  • Why I prefer Linux
  • Which one? What was the chip?

  • Why I prefer Linux
  • God, I just did the set up new laptop process on Sunday; I completely forgot how insanely long everything takes to set up, update, configure, etc. Linux SBC, maybe an hour end to end; install, update, all my configs neatly in a file, ready to be copied over. Regular Linux: two hours end to end at most. You just do not appreciate the beauty of apt update/apt install quite as much as the moment you are confronted with a new Windows install.

    Windows? Pretty much most of Sunday afternoon and evening. First the Dell updates, then the driver updates, then the pre-installed program updates, then the Windows updates (though not in that order and not all at once, because predictability what is that). Then I could actually start adding my programs and configuring it, and oh boy.

    Just my base configuration for Office--that being each individual program in the suite, God knows--required a hunting expedition and a lot of googling to track everything down in multiple locations and I still had to do a lot of it manually; putty and kitty required copying bits of the registry; calibre I gave up as it was less work to do it myself from memory; firefox was the only thing I could just copy and paste a folder and be entirely done. That part was nice. Every other program I needed I had to track down and install separately then hunt up configs in multiple locations and Windows kept interrupting the process because oh, we forgot, here's more updates and one to three restarts. Why?

    And Windows 11's start menu is just insulting; talk about salt in the wound.

  • /r/AccidentalRenaissance moderators have all resigned. The subreddit has permanently shut down and moved to Lemmy.
  • All I need is the Solus sub to move over here and there is literally nothing on reddit I need; right now, that sub is pretty much the only place to keep up with developments on the OS since it reorganized and de-dormant'ed. Please let it move, please.

  • Do e-cigarettes actually work?
  • I started vaping seven years ago as a way to quit smoking; I smoked my last cigarette literally outside the vape store before walking in and asking what to I buy to pull this off as nothing worked. The transition was seamless; not only did I never even crave a cigarette again, I very quickly learned to loathe the smell of cigarettes once my full range of smell came back. There's not even a temptation to start up again.

    It also helps that I choose vapes that smell amazing.

    I am still vaping, yes, but I'm stepping down my nicotine pretty much every two years. I started at 24 and am now at 15 (I was stuck at 18 for a while). Those transitions I can definitely feel, but I can start with adjusting my mod's wattage, air flow, use different coils for a bit, and ease into it so once I step down, there's no chance I step back up, and then reward myself sometimes with a new fancy mod with a touchscreen with more leds or a cooler tank or something. All that and I am spending an order of magnitude less than I ever did on cigarettes and I have the math to prove it.

    It's certainly not ideal and yeah, it's slow and basically only progressively reducing harm, but it's a process that for me is guaranteed to work with no backtracking and progress is assured.

  • What is something really stupid you purchased that turned out far better than expected?
  • Egg boiler. On the surface it's just the most gadgety pointless product invented but I literally wore it out because suddenly I could have hard boiled eggs and no risk of setting my apartment on fire because I forgot about the eggs. After I move, it's the first thing I'm getting for my kitchen because low-risk hard boiled eggs are totally worth it.

    There's a lot of seemingly 'useless' kitchen gadgets like this: full size food processor, waffle maker, breadmaker, even my ridic large instapot. I don't use them every day or even every week and no, I don't need them for daily life. Yes I can mince fifty thousand vegetables for this really complicated soup by hand or make bread from scratch or do whatever you do to make a pot roast without them--but I won't do those things. I know me pretty well now; if I want to make that soup, make some fresh bread, or do that thirty-step fancy pot roast, I need those tools or I'll default to frozen pizza and maybe have fresh Italian bread if I went to Central Market recently and remembered to grab it from the bakery.

  • Sorting by new on Lemmy isn’t a dumpster fire experience like it is on Reddit
  • Sweet Roko's Basilisk, so I wasn't missing some mysterious reddit setting where I 'new' was translated as 'wtf' and 'crap'?

    It's a whole new world.

  • why can't we have federated identity ?
  • Okay, I apologize for missing something; I don't disagree with any of that. Did I give the impression I did?

  • why can't we have federated identity ?
  • Oh God no, that's not where I want this to go; that pretty much defeats the entire point. This is to expand our options so we can use the plural form of 'options' and not the singular and I'm optimistic there will be more.

  • why can't we have federated identity ?
  • I'm a QC analyst and we are fully Agile, so I'm required to attend ever. team. meeting. Discovery, story point estimation, design spikes, any day can be poorly handled emotional regulation day and whoever's feeling it is making it everyone's problem when all we want is to finish a few maintenance items and maybe add a comma to some text. Though the testers have nothing to do with this after story point until there actual code migrated to one of the testing environments, we are forced to bear witness to entire dev teams made up of people from three to eight countries, whose only common language is English and as often the only native speaker, I am the only one who can't mutter not very goddamn quietly in my native tongue that no one else understands; this may have been my motivation at one point to learn Welsh on Duolingo. A Project Manager making three times more than anyone else in the room sometimes swoops in during SCRUM two weeks into our sprint cycle to be perky at us and--on far too many occasions for this to be random--informs us the acceptance criteria had a couple of updates before swooping back out to PM something else's life. We all hate her quietly until someone who went to check JIRA notes there are double the number of criteria and the user story is not the same in any way;. then everyone but me gets to hate her verbally with no one the wiser. I maintain bitterly grudging silence because everyone in the room speaks English, sometimes better than I do, and they have been in Texas long enough to pickup conversationally hostile Spanish. Our scrum master will either grimly pretend it's always been this way or very blatantly not care.

    At final demo as the tester, I will perform a dramatic rendition of 'page with comma' and 'title:justfication left' or run batch scripts in terminal while they watch absolutely nothing happening and nod wisely. Half the people in attendance wears suits for a living and have never used a computer; they have secretaries for that. Two worked with my mom and are quietly judging my performance and find me lacking. One stakeholder will ask a thousand questions, five of which have any relation to what we're doing and I am expected to answer with no discernible change in my performance. Someone is watching TV and can't be fucked to turn down the volume. Everyone else sits in eerie silence and I might hear a snore. Every one of these people are considered qualified enough to decide if we're did a good job and sign off on it so we can finally end the sprint and the code can be added to the next release to production. No one feels a sense of relief or satisfaction; at least one dev hasn't slept since the PM destroyed our lives and may be clinically insane.

    Our sprints last four weeks with a prep week in between; we will experience some version of this cycle of dev hell roughly eight times a year and sometimes involving the legislature making their lack of time management all of our problem. Only one sprint will go as planned. One.

    The worst part is; despite this, knowing full well what hell is before me, I went back to college for software development of my own free will.

  • seperis Seperis @lemmy.world
    Posts 2
    Comments 44