Alpine Linux - Home Assistant Supervised

This guide, along with a few small software packages, allows to install Home Assistant Supervised on a host machine running Alpine Linux. Note that this is not a supported HA installation method, so YMMV. Personally, it works just fine on my ARMv7 machine.

Since July 2023, there are prebuilt APK packages available in this repo (for x86, x86_64, armhf, armv7 and aarch64). The README below has been updated to reflect that. They are signed with the following public key:

Click to show public key

-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----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-----END PUBLIC KEY-----

Building from source is also possible; the original guide is at the end of this document.

Note: in April 2024 the MACHINE variable in /etc/hassio.json created by this package was changed to reflect the correct system architecture. Upgrading to hassio-supervised v1.7.0 or newer will automatically rewrite that file with every update.

Prerequisites

All steps of this guide (unless otherwise noted) are to be ran by a non-root, sudo-enabled user.

Bind propagation

Important: since v1.4.3, the Home Assistant Supervisor needs bind propagation support in the root filesystem (see home-assistant/supervised-installer#293).

The rshared flag has to be enabled in /etc/fstab:

UUID=the-uuid-is-usually-here       /       ext4    rw,relatime,rshared 0 1

Docker

# install git, Docker and Python 3
sudo apk add git docker python3
# start Docker
sudo service docker start
# add yourself to docker group
sudo addgroup $(whoami) docker

AppArmor

You need a kernel with AppArmor support for best Home Assistant compatibility. Install and enable AppArmor, as shown in the wiki. Make sure to also install:

sudo apk add apparmor-profiles

Your kernel command line must have this as well:

lsm=landlock,yama,apparmor

Refer to Alpine Wiki/AppArmor for details.

NetworkManager

This is optional, but will enable more network-related features in Home Assistant.

Refer to alpine-custom-setup.

logind

Optional, but (probably) enables more functionalities in HA, as the supervisor uses logind's DBus.

sudo apk add elogind

Installing prebuilt packages

Enable the APK repository from this GitHub repo:

echo "https://kuba2k2.github.io/alpine-home-assistant" | sudo tee -a /etc/apk/repositories
# install the public key
sudo wget -O /etc/apk/keys/[email protected] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kuba2k2/alpine-home-assistant/master/[email protected]
# update repos
# APK should now show the "alpine-home-assistant" repo
sudo apk update

Finally, install the packages:

# Home Assistant OS Agent
sudo apk add hassio-os-agent
# Additional DBus bindings
sudo apk add hassio-dbus-openrc
# Check if DBus bindings work
gdbus introspect --system --dest org.freedesktop.systemd1 --object-path /org/freedesktop/systemd1
# Install only if you have NetworkManager
sudo apk add hassio-supervised-nm
# Supervisor & AppArmor - this will install and start Home Assistant
sudo apk add hassio-supervised

Home Assistant will automatically be started and added as an autostart service in OpenRC.

See Docker containers starting up:

watch -n 3 docker ps

Building from source

Basic setup

Login as root to configure sudo, if you haven't done this yet.

# enable community repository
sed -i '/v3\.\d*\/community/s/^#//' /etc/apk/repositories
# update apk index
apk update
# install sudo
apk add sudo
# abuild seems to require doas, do this if you don't have it
ln -s $(which sudo) /usr/bin/doas
# enable for 'wheel' group
echo "%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL" > /etc/sudoers.d/wheel
# same without password
echo "%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" > /etc/sudoers.d/wheel-nopw

Environment

(Re)login as a sudo-enabled, non-root user.

# install Alpine SDK
sudo apk add alpine-sdk
sudo addgroup $(whoami) abuild
sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/distfiles
sudo chgrp abuild /var/cache/distfiles
sudo chmod g+w /var/cache/distfiles
abuild-keygen -a -i # skip if you already have a key

Logout and login again.

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/kuba2k2/alpine-home-assistant

Build packages

Login as a sudo-enabled, non-root user.

cd ~/alpine-home-assistant/
source build_all.sh

Install

# Home Assistant OS Agent
sudo apk add --repository ~/packages/alpine-home-assistant hassio-os-agent
# Additional DBus bindings
sudo apk add --repository ~/packages/alpine-home-assistant hassio-dbus-openrc
# Check if DBus bindings work
gdbus introspect --system --dest org.freedesktop.systemd1 --object-path /org/freedesktop/systemd1
# Install only if you have NetworkManager
sudo apk add --repository ~/packages/alpine-home-assistant hassio-supervised-nm
# Supervisor & AppArmor - this will install and start Home Assistant
sudo apk add --repository ~/packages/alpine-home-assistant hassio-supervised

See Docker containers starting up:

watch -n 3 docker ps