How to Install HomeAssistant on a PC (Easy!)

A Micro-PC or unused Computer is a great choice for hosting your local Home Assistant server. In this video I explain why this Dell Optiplex 3050 beats out a Raspberry Pi 4, for a fraction of the cost and with much more performance, before walking you through the installation process, step-by-step! Follow along to repurpose that old machine gathering dust in the corner or to set-up your purpose bought Micro PC.

EDIT 10/5/23: It seems that balena etcher might be having some issues inside of Ubuntu. The Ubuntu step is intended to save time and money by not having to remove your drive and connect it to another PC. If you are able, and have the additional adapter, feel free to skip the ubuntu step and install HAOS straight to your SSD on the PC. If you do NOT have the adapter, continue with the Ubuntu installation. If you have issues with Balena Etcher, please try the built in Ubuntu Disk Imaging tool or download the Raspberry Pi Image tool. Both of which should allow you to choose the HAOS file and target your SSD for install. If you need help, please reach out to the support channel on the Chuck Builds Discord!

Time Stamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:19 Why to choose a Micro-PC
02:56 Preparing BIOS Settings
04:37 Download Balena Etcher and Ubuntu Image
05:30 Creating the Bootable USB
06:17 Booting into Ubuntu OS
09:35 Flashing Home Assistant onto the PC
10:38 First Boot into Home Assistant OS
11:30 (Optional) Wifi Setup from Command Line

Commands to Setup Wifi via Command Line:

network info

network update wlan0 --ipv4-method auto --ipv6-method auto --wifi-auth wpa-psk --wifi-mode infrastructure --wifi-ssid WIFI-NAME --wifi-psk WIFI-PASSWORD

Replace WIFI-NAME and WIFI-PASSWORD with your network information, use quotes if there's spaces

If you would like to support my channel, I have linked the following products mentioned in my video from Amazon that I will make a small commission off of, if you buy it using my below links. I've included the price at time of posting for comparison sake.

Amazon Link:

[GH-icll]

I've seen a few other videos on initial HA setup, but yours is by far the best for lay individuals. Get explanations and clean instructions.

[BalajiChandran]

I have been searching for a video tutorial for installing Home, yours is the best.

[JimKirkby]

By far the best walk through of installing HomeAssistant on to a PC. I had tried a couple of different methods but following this was the most simple and worked in minutes. Thank you!

[FarrukhFiaz]

i watched many videos, and read the official documentation, but was not much clear about it. However, your one video made everything clear to me. Thanks

[Enigmata]

So I am picking up my micro PC tomorrow and starting my HA journey this weekend, this video was recommended from a friend and man am I glad he did, such a straightforward and concise directions - Will check out the updated video now as I see you mention Balena is no longer the way to go - I assume we can just mount the .iso file now.
Thanks Chuck!

[theben]

Thank you so much for this. I had my old PC sitting on my desk running a HA as a VM in Virtualbox on Windows 11 so I much prefer this method!

[michaelallen]

F-ing A Man. I followed your directions step by step and it worked the first time. Thank you very much. You're a fantastic teacher for people like me who are as green as grass with Home Assistant. Thanks.

[DeepakKalha]

Thank you. Finally some clarity. Please do more on next steps in Home Assistant. Cheers.

[alkhashtee]

Man you are such a talented person I been looking for. I wish everyone can explain things the way you do it. Sure appreciate you..

[MarkGhali]

This is a really good concise well-explained video! Thank you for taking the time to create it

[bubaks]

Just found the channel. I really wanna learn this stuff so thanks a-lot mann. Your videos are clear and easy to follow.

[jeryz]

Man, literal lifesaver! I couldn't run balena etcher, had to install fuse, but found a solution for that too. Now HA is running nicely!

[victor]

lol I use proxmox so didn’t need this now but glad I watched cause I’m going to use this method when I need to flash bare metal. So smart, just boot into usb trial mode and flash directly to storage. Love it!

[Lezcarr]

best walk through I have found well done and thank you for this much appreciated

[jebbennett]

Thank so you much! I’ve been be on the fence for over two years about tackling the project of getting a raspberry pi and so happy I don’t have to now. I am HUGE into Halloween and Christmas animations. So getting home assistants was a must. This was perfect and so simple to follow. The only issue I can into was in the bios, I didn’t have usb click to run first. It took me a an hour or so of staring at it before I noticed🤦🏼‍♂️. Anyways thanks for the great video!

[markshaz]

Thanks really good tutorial on how to do this.

[BillOstrowski]

Awesome video. It worked perfectly for me.

[sarigaus]

Totally agree with @JimKirkby, best walk through I have come across to date...easy. Thanks

[justarandomdude]

Thank you for your work. Liked, subscribed and commented :)

[bendunaway]

A great guide. Tansk for the verbose explanations.