1. Install Home Assistant Core

    Caution

    This is an advanced installation process, and some steps might differ on your system. Considering the nature of this installation type, we assume you can handle subtle differences between this document and the system configuration you are using. When in doubt, please consider one of the other installation methods, as they might be a better fit instead.

      1. Prerequisites

    This guide assumes that you already have an operating system setup and have installed Python 3.13 (including the package python3-dev) or newer.

      1. Install dependencies

    Before you start, make sure your system is fully updated, all packages in this guide are installed with apt, if your OS does not have that, look for alternatives.

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y

    Install the dependencies:

    sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-dev python3-venv python3-pip bluez libffi-dev libssl-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev autoconf build-essential libopenjp2-7 libtiff6 libturbojpeg0-dev tzdata ffmpeg liblapack3 liblapack-dev libatlas-base-dev

    The above-listed dependencies might differ or missing, depending on your system or personal use of Home Assistant.

      1. Create an account

    Add an account for Home Assistant Core called homeassistant. Since this account is only for running Home Assistant Core the extra arguments of -rm is added to create a system account and create a home directory.

    sudo useradd -rm homeassistant

      1. Create the virtual environment

    First we will create a directory for the installation of Home Assistant Core and change the owner to the homeassistant account.

    sudo mkdir /srv/homeassistant
sudo chown homeassistant:homeassistant /srv/homeassistant

    Next up is to create and change to a virtual environment for Home Assistant Core. This will be done as the homeassistant account.

    sudo -u homeassistant -H -s
cd /srv/homeassistant
python3 -m venv .
source bin/activate

    Once you have activated the virtual environment (notice the prompt change to (homeassistant) homeassistant@raspberrypi:/srv/homeassistant $) you will need to run the following command to install a required Python package.

    python3 -m pip install wheel

    Once you have installed the required Python package, it is now time to install Home Assistant Core!

    pip3 install homeassistant==2025.5.2

    Troubleshooting: If you do not see the above version of Home Assistant package in your environment, make sure you have the correct Python version installed, as defined under the Prerequisites.

    Start Home Assistant Core for the first time. This will complete the installation for you, automatically creating the .homeassistant configuration directory in the /home/homeassistant directory, and installing any basic dependencies.

    hass

    You can now reach your installation via the web interface on http://homeassistant.local:8123.

    If this address doesn’t work you may also try http://localhost:8123 or http://X.X.X.X:8123 (replace X.X.X.X with your machines’ IP address).

    Note

    When you run the hass command for the first time, it will download, install and cache the necessary libraries/dependencies. This procedure may take anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes. During that time, you may get a site cannot be reached error when accessing the web interface. This will only happen the first time. Subsequent restarts will be much faster.