Install Home Assistant image on Debian and running it within a docker

This project started on 01 Dec. 2022

Raspberry Pis are good for Home Assistant application. They have low power consumption, but at the moment they are too expensive.
So I did a look into an alternative solution and found the thin client Fujitsu S920.

Below I would like to describe how I successfully installed the Home Assistant on it.

Equipment

Model Fujitsu Futro S920
Memory: 4 GB DDR3-1600
Hard-disk: mSATA 8 GB. It’s not enough!
For Hassio installation will an SSD card at least 32 GB or more required.
Processor: AMD GX-222GC 15W 2.2GHz/ 2.4GHz 2CU 655MHz/ 800MHz

Preparing for OS Installation

removed Speaker
removed the smart card reader
removed internal mSATA 8GB and upgraded to a 128GB SATA/mSATA disk
(SATA data connector is under CPU cooler)

Download Debian live image

Download the debian latest live image for amd64 under (debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-standard.iso)
Next, download a tool for formatting and creating bootable USB flash drives: Rufus 3.21 Portable or any other tools

Connect a keyboard, monitor and a network cable (if there is no WLAN card in the computer) to the computer and complete the installation.

Debian configuration

log in as a root user ( super user)

apt update
dist-upgrade

Adding the created user entered by installation to the sudoer group (change the username to what you entered during installation)

usermod -aG sudo username
apt install openssh-server #(opessh-sftp-server)
systemctl status sshd
systemctl stop/start sshd

Manage the firewall. Let’s start with the minimum env. for main functionalities.

apt install ufw
ufw status
ufw status verbose
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw allow 8123
sudo ufw allow 6052
sudo ufw enable

Check the IP-Address by command or read from fritz.box and remember it 192.168.178.xx

hostname -I | awk '{print $1}'

Remote login via PuTTY

Open a terminal (for Linux) or a command line/PuTTy (for Windows) ssh [username]@[server IP]

apt update
apt dist-upgrade
apt autoremove

Install docker and dependencies over SSH using PuTTy:

apt-get install \
jq \
wget \
curl \
udisks \
libglib2.0-bin \
network-manager \
dbus \
systemd-journal-remote
/*  quickly installing the latest Docker-CE releases on the linux  */
curl -fsSL get.docker.com | sh

In order for a user who cannot run Docker correctly, the user must be added to the corresponding group account): root

sudo usermod -aG docker $(whoami)

Finally, restarts:

sudo reboot

When Docker installation is finished we check to see the version and test it:

docker --version
docker search hello-world
docker run hello-world

Setting up permissions To perform the installation:

We need to do the reboot again typing then:systemctl reboot

The moment to install Hassio with docker-compose

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install \
avahi-daemon \
apparmor
cd $home
apt-get install docker-compose
git clone https://github.com/postlund/hassio-compose.git
cd hassio-compose
$ echo "SUPERVISOR_SHARE=/home/$USER/hassio-config" > .env
docker-compose up

Starting Home Assistant for the first time

To connect to the device, just enter the address in the browser: http:[IP Address]:8123
The System Quick Start Wizard opens.

Install Home Assistant supervised dependencies.
(or you installing OS Agent)

Download the latest Debian package from OS Agent GitHub release

wget https://github.com/home-assistant/supervised-installer/releases/latest/download/homeassistant-supervised.deb
dpkg -i homeassistant-supervised.deb

Machine types: for AMD CPUs you select generic-x86-64.

docker container ls -a
ghcr.io/home-assistant/qemux86-64-homeassistant:2022.12.5 "/init"
ghcr.io/home-assistant/amd64-hassio-multicast:2022.02.0 "/init"
ghcr.io/home-assistant/amd64-hassio-audio:2022.07.0 "/init"
ghcr.io/home-assistant/amd64-hassio-dns:2022.04.1 "/init"
ghcr.io/home-assistant/amd64-hassio-cli:2022.11.0 "/init"
ghcr.io/home-assistant/amd64-hassio-supervisor:latest "/init"
ghcr.io/home-assistant/amd64-hassio-observer:2021.10.0 "/init"
hello-world   

After it has finished running you should be able to access Home Assistant from:

http://your.ip.address.here:8123
Another alternative way to create containers
In your working directory example /home/my_user/
mkdir -p ./docker/homeassistant/ && mkdir -p ./docker/esphome/
Homeassistant container:
 Create a file docker compose for homeassistant container:
vim ./docker/homeassistant/docker-compose.yml
Inside this file paste:
version: '3'
services:
  homeassistant:
    container_name: homeassistant
    image: "ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable"
    volumes:
      - /PATH_TO_YOUR_CONFIG:/config
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    restart: unless-stopped
    privileged: true
    network_mode: host
 
/PATH_TO_YOUR_CONFIG is the directory where we must mount the root volume of Home Assistant.
ESPHome container:
 Create a file docker compose for ESPHome container:
vim ./docker/homeassistant/docker-compose.yml
Inside this file paste:
version: '3'
services:
  esphome:
    container_name: esphome
    image: esphome/esphome
    volumes:
      - /path/to/esphome/config:/config
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    restart: always
    privileged: true
    network_mode: host
 
/path/to/esphome/config is the directory where we must mount the config volume of ESPHOME.
Finally start containers with:
cd ./docker/<name>/
docker-compose up -d
HA IP_server: 8123
 Esphome IP_server: 6052
some useful commands:
 docker --version
Docker version 20.10.21, build baeda1f

uname -a
lsb_release -a
docker ps
docker rm -f [Container_ID];
to purge all docker container and remove all stopped containers
 containers, volumes, images
#!/usr/bin/env bash
docker stop $(docker ps -aq)
echo y | docker system prune
Configuration of Home Assistent ->