It is also possible to install Home Assistant OS in Virtual Box.

See https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/linux/ after it is installed virtual box starts showing a text console running the Home Assistant CLI (a console line interface). when typing login the prompt changes to the linux root. localectl status and localectl set-keymap de_CH-latin1 to get swiss german key map. exit bring back the ha> prompt. host shutdown shuts down Home Assistant in the proper smooth way.

It also tells to use http://homeassistant.local:8123 and http://homeassistant.local:4357/

If the Raspberry is serving primary for other purposes than Home Assistant then Home Assistant can be added and installed in a container https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/

See https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/alternative/#install-home-assistant-container or https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/raspberrypi-other. There are different container solutions but the guide focuses on docker. Docker must be first installed

[Unit]
Description=Home Assistant Container
Requires=docker.service
After=docker.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
WorkingDirectory=/opt/docker/homeassistant
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker run -d --name homeassistant --privileged --restart=unless-stopped -e TZ=Europe/Zurich -v /opt/docker/homeassistant:/config -v /run/dbus:/run/dbus:ro --network=host ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable
ExecStop=/usr/bin/docker stop -t 60 homeassistant
ExecStopPost=/usr/bin/docker rm -f homeassistant

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Once installed, it can be accessed as http://<ip address>:8123

There is also an app available for mobile devices

Some terms to know

/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant hold the data including yaml files

alias: Tasmota Switch On at 20:00
description: Turn on switch.tasmota2 at 20:00
trigger:
  - platform: time
    at: "20:00:00"
action:
  - service: switch.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id: switch.tasmota2
    data: {}

alias: Tasmota Switch On at sunset
description: Turn on switch.tasmota2 at sunset 
trigger:
  - platform: sun
    event: sunset
    offset: "0"
condition: []
action:
  - service: switch.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id: switch.tasmota2
    data: {}
mode: single

alias: Humidity Alarm Bathroom On
description: Humidity is above level
trigger:
  - platform: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.shellyplusuni_a0a3b36865f4_humidity
    above: 45
condition: []
action:
  - type: turn_on
    device_id: f9ecf0bcd602949c51a780527ac19b57
    entity_id: switch.shellyplusuni_a0a3b36865f4_switch_0
    domain: switch
mode: single

Make sure the MQTT integration is working and setup. Then add the Tasmota integration to home assistant.

Shelly's https://www.shelly.com/ appear as WLAN servers creating their own network and have ip addresses as http://192.168.33.1

The first step is using a WLAN capable PC and check for available WLAN networks as SSID: Shelly1PMMiniG3-<number> . Then connect to the network. After this open a browser with http://192.168.33.1 and the Shelly's device web page appears

Now configure the WLAN settings so it uses the same network as the home assistant device. A static address can be set to have a defined IP address. Then enable the network to have now the Shelly accessible to home assistant and it stops blinking its red LED. It however stays also in its SSID: Shelly1PMMiniG3-<number> using http://192.168.33.1. Everybody could connect to it, so it is a cyber security issue, set a user name and password and to be more safe disable the shelly's access point feature. This however has the risk that a factory reset might be required in the future, if password or user names will be lost or if the WLAN home network changes.

Factory resets could be done by pressing the buttons on the shelly's for longer than 10s or if no button is present by multiple quick power on off cycles.

Since it is now connected to the Internet it is time to check for firmware updates.

The Shelly has lot of functions and features to configure and operate itself without using home assistant. If using home assistant, it needs therefore be taken care that no interference between the home assistant and the local Shelly configuration occurs.

The Shelly and home assistant must communicate themselves using one out of the many protocols available. However both must use and understand the same protocol.

Many Shelly's are directly found by Home Assistant and will be directly integrated in its GUI.

However some Shelly's as Generation 3 are not detected yet and can be used by defining their protocol. One common protocol (not just for Shelly's) is MQTT. If not having Home assistant OS or Supervised then a MQTT broker is missing so sudo apt install mosquitto mosquitto-clients and configure mosquitto.

When adding the OctoPrint device to Home assistant then the OctoPrintes user name needs to be entered and OctoPrint started. OctoPrint then asks to grant the connection.

There are different implementations for webcams in OctoPrint. OctoPrint tries to use them but not to set them up. Therefore the Webcam can use the Home Assistant MJPEG IP Camera Integration using a stream as http://<ip>:8080/stream. The Picture Entity Card can then be used to show the camera stream.

Add the time & date integration then add the clock card in a dashboard.

To get date add again time & date integration and select now date add an entity card to show it.

Selecting AM or 24 is done in the user setting

To see day of the week add a Markdown card with:

type: markdown
content: |
  ## {{ now().strftime('%A') }}

The GUI has its limits for configuration especially when integrations are missing or generic communication protocols are used. In this case the configuration file is usually in /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml needs to be edited.

If working in a console work as user home assistant:

sudo -u homeassistant -H -s

In Home Assistant Gui Developer Tools CHECK CONFIGURATION https://www.home-assistant.io/common-tasks/core/#configuration-check or source /srv/homeassistant/bin/activate and hass --script check_config

For new items a restart is necessary after that modifications need just a YAML reload, click an green tick should appear.

To get a modular configuration configuration.yaml can includes other yaml files. To move out the mqtt stuff in a separate mqtt.yaml file add to configuration.yaml

mqtt: !include mqtt.yaml

then create the mqtt.yaml without repeating mqtt again:

sensor:
  - name: "raspi_soc_temperature"
    state_topic: "raspi/soc/temperature"

network_mode: host

listener 1883
allow_anonymous true
persistence true
persistence_location /mosquitto/data/
log_dest file /mosquitto/log/mosquitto.log 

#! /bin/bash
mosquitto_pub \
  -t "raspi/soc/temperature" \
  -m "$(/usr/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp | sed -E 's/temp=([0-9]+\.[0-9]+).*/\1/')" -u <username> -P <password>

*/15 * * * * /opt/RaspiTemperature/raspitemp.sh

*/15 * * * * /opt/RaspiTemperature/raspitemp.sh >> /tmp/raspitemp-cron.log 2>&1

mqtt:
  sensor:
    - name: "raspi_soc_temperature"
      state_topic: "raspi/soc/temperature"

sensor:
  - name: "raspi_soc_temperature"
    state_topic: "raspi/soc/temperature"
  - name: "raspi_manager_battery_soc"
    state_topic: "raspi/manager"
    value_template: "{{ value_json['battery' ].soc }}"
  - name: "raspi_manager_power"
    state_topic: "raspi/manager"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.power }}"

switch:
  - name: "mini1pmg3"
    command_topic: "shelly1pmminig3-5432044f7414/rpc"
    payload_on:  '{"id": 1, "src": "hass", "method":"Switch.Set", "params":{"id":0,"on":true}}'
    payload_off: '{"id": 1, "src": "hass", "method":"Switch.Set", "params":{"id":0,"on":false}}'
    retain: false

switch:
  - name: "mini1pmg3"
    command_topic: "shelly1pmminig3-5432044f7414/rpc"
    payload_on:  '{"id": 1, "src": "hass", "method":"Switch.Set", "params":{"id":0,"on":true}}'
    payload_off: '{"id": 1, "src": "hass", "method":"Switch.Set", "params":{"id":0,"on":false}}'
    retain: true
    state_topic: "shelly1pmminig3-5432044f7414/status/switch:0"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.output }}"
    state_on: true
    state_off: false

template:
  - button:
      - name: "MQTT Button 1"
        press:
          service: mqtt.publish
          data:
            topic: "object_detection/switch"
            payload: 1

      - name: "MQTT Button 2"
        press:
          service: mqtt.publish
          data:
            topic: "object_detection/switch"
            payload: 2

      - name: "MQTT Button 3"
        press:
          service: mqtt.publish
          data:
            topic: "object_detection/switch"
            payload: 3.

command_line:
  - sensor:
      name: "Raspberry Pi CPU Temperature"
      unique_id: rpi_cpu_temperature
      command: "cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp"
      scan_interval: 60
      unit_of_measurement: "°C"
      value_template: "{{ (value | float / 1000) | round(1) }}"

rest_commend:

unique_id: "raspi4_soc_temp-e45f016dc555"

unit_of_measurement: "W"

class HelloCard extends HTMLElement {
  setConfig(config) {
    this.config = config;
    this.innerHTML = `<ha-card header="Hello Card">
      <div style="padding: 16px;">Hello World!</div>
    </ha-card>`;
  }

  set hass(hass) {
    // will be called on each state-update
  }

  getCardSize() {
    return 1;
  }
}

customElements.define("hello-card", HelloCard);

type: custom:hello-card
entity: sensor.elevator_position
min: 1
max: 10

It is available via Settings > Voice Assistant and allows to enter commands via voice.

Add assistant gives it a name and configures it as for the languages spoken. It appears then in the menu and can be set as being the preferred.

There is also the offer to get the cloud service that also offers connection to Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

Kiosk mode means converting a PC's full featured graphical desktop into a simple touch screen.

First decide on portrait or landscape mode and then remove the on screen keyboard.

Test Font sizes and probably set a dark theme.

Both the browser chromium and home assistant need to use their kiosk mode.

Open chromium http://<hostname or IP>:8123 without kiosk option and log in as Kiosk user.

chromium --kiosk http://<hostname or IP>:8123 will open in kiosk mode. If something goes wrong Alt + F4 will exit.

http://<hostname or IP>:8123 from a remote computer and ssh will still work as usual. so pkill chromium will terminate as well

To have it started after power up add to ~/.config/labwc/autostart (try first without --kiosk, --password-store=basic prevents popping up the keyring authentication window and --user-data-dir will move the chomium Kiosk data as cookies, cache away from the regular users data)

# Chromium starten
sleep 30
chromium \
  --user-data-dir=/home/<username>/.config/chromium-kiosk \
  --password-store=basic \
  --kiosk \
  http://<IP or hostname of home assistant>:8123 &

Sleep 30 seconds sleep is added to give time since home assistant must run before chromium accesses it.

The next step is putting home assistant in Kiosk mode to hide the header and side bars. Install Kiosk Mode from HACS and restart home assistant.

Go to Settings and select the desired dashboard to be put in kiosk mode then click on Raw configuration editor and put on top of the yaml code:

kiosk_mode:
  user_settings:
    - users:
        - Kiosk
      hide_sidebar: true
      hide_header: true

Now refresh the browser, header and side bar should have been gone.

Having one dashboard in Kiosk mode is probably not enough a button to open an other dashboard might be desired.

Add a button card to the dashboard to open the map dashbord. Enter to yaml:

type: button
name: Map
icon: mdi:map
tap_action:
  action: navigate
  navigation_path: /map/0

/map/0 is the path as shown in the url when opening the map dashboard

A accepted e-mail server as gmail needs to be used and a user e-mail address and application password must be created.

Add the SMPT integration and configure it with; sender e-mail, sender name, host as smtp.gmail.com, port, connection security, username and application password

And finally add an automation to automations.yaml:

alias: Raspberry Pi SoC Temperature Warning
description: Notification too high SoC temperature
triggers:
  - trigger: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.raspi_soc_temperature
    above: 78
    for:
      minutes: 15
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.gmail_urs_linurs_org
    data:
      title: ⚠️ Raspberry Pi Temperature high
      message: >
        SoC-Temperature is {{ states('sensor.raspi_soc_temperature')
        }}°C 
mode: single

The id must be unique and sensor.raspi_soc_temperature must be the proper existing entity name

Backup can be configured to go to the local device. During the configuration an encryption key is generated. The backup is therefore encrypted since it contains sensitive data as for authentications.

The backup goes to the config/backups directory that is if docker is user put as volume in its persistent location.

Via Settings System Backup the backup can be downloaded to a remote computer but requires the encryption key. The downloaded backup will be unencrypted so store it on a safe place. The backup contains the home assistant config directory.

Everything persistent created is defined in docker-compose.yml it is the config directory of home assistant. So create a copy or even put it under git.

Create a home assistant backup or copy everything under the persistent docker volume that points to the config directory to a safe place.

cd <to directory of docker-compose.yml> and docker compose pull homeassistant gets new version of just home assistant and not all the other containers inside docker-compose.yml

docker compose up -d homeassistant does the update

Now repeat the same for the other containers listed in docker-compose.yml