Installing home assistant on a Raspberry Pi is really simple.
The Official recommended way is to use Home Assistant Operating System (HA OS).

Things you will need:

  1. A Raspberry Pi, preferably version 4, 3B+ is also OK.
  2. A Micro SD card, 32GB or higher.
  3. SD card reader for your Computer.
  4. Ethernet cable, connected to the Pi and your router. Wifi is not recommended.
  5. A good and stable power supply. This is a crucial item – using unsuitable one will cause you many, many troubles!!! You can go with the official one or alternatives.

Let’s start!

  • Insert SD card to your card reader and connect it to your computer.
  • Download  Balena Etcher, select “Flash from URL”
Screenshot of the Etcher software showing flash from URL selected.
  • Copy the right url for your Pi:
  • Pi 4 – 64-bit 
https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/6.5/haos_rpi4-64-6.5.img.xz
  • Pi 4 – 32-bit 
https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/6.5/haos_rpi4-6.5.img.xz
  • Pi 3 – 64-bit
https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/6.5/haos_rpi3-64-6.5.img.xz
  • Pi 3 – 32-bit
https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/6.5/haos_rpi3-6.5.img.xz
  • Paste the URL in BelenaEtcher.
Screenshot of the Etcher software showing the URL bar with a URL pasted in.
  • It will now download the image, when that is done – click on “Select Target”
Screenshot of the Etcher software showing the select target button highlighted.
  • Select the SD card – make sure to select the right one!
Screenshot of the Etcher software showing teh targets available.
  • Click on Flash! and wait for the flash to complete.
Screenshot of the Etcher software showing the Flash button highlighted.
  • When the flash is complete, remove the SD card from computer and plug it in to the Pi. Connect your Pi to Ethernet and only then – turn it on / connect it to the power supply.
  • Wait a few minutes and you should be able to reach homeassistant.local:8123
  • If you can’t reach it, you may need to look for your Pi internal Ip address (http://x.x.x.x:8123)
  • If you see this screen – you can now start configuring your Home assistant:
  • Fill in the Details and click Create Account. Try to remember those details as they are a little bit hard to recover.
  • Now – configure your timezone and location.
  • Configure your detected devices. You can skip this screen as everything can be configured later.
  • You are done!