diff --git a/source/_posts/2021-06-09-home-assistant-os-release-6.markdown b/source/_posts/2021-06-09-home-assistant-os-release-6.markdown new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..7050ccdaa3a --- /dev/null +++ b/source/_posts/2021-06-09-home-assistant-os-release-6.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,144 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Home Assistant OS Release 6" +description: "" +date: 2021-06-11 00:00:00 +date_formatted: "June 11, 2021" +author: Stefan Agner +author_twitter: falstaff_ch +comments: true +categories: Release-Notes +og_image: /images/blog/2021-06-11-os6/social.png +--- + + +Home Assistant OS Release 6 Logo + + +Home Assistant OS 6.0 stable is available now! + +**Highlights**: + +- OS Agent for better OS integration with Supervisor +- Support for additional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices +- Smaller virtual machine disk images + +- Improved: Generic x86-64 system support + +## Table of contents + +- [Operating System Changes](#operating-system-changes) + - [OS Agent](#os-agent) + - [Under the Hood](#under-the-hood) +- [Device Support](#device-support) + - [Raspberry Pi](#raspberry-pi) + - [Generic x86-64](#generic-x86-64) + - [Open Virtualization Appliance](#open-virtualization-appliance) + - [Additional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth device support](#additional-wifi-and-bluetooth-device-support) + - [Homematic IP Support](#homematic-ip-support) + - [Google Coral PCIe AI Accelerator Support](#google-coral-pcie-ai-accelerator-support) +- [Other Changes](#other-changes) + +## Operating System Changes + +### OS Agent + +Operating System release 6 comes with a new, Go written daemon called OS Agent. +This allows the Supervisor to access more aspects of the OS. One such aspect is +to move the data to an external data disk or wipe data to start over without +reinstalling. Note however that at this point, the required logic in the +Supervisor and Frontend is still being developed. + +### Under the Hood + +Under the hood, the OS was updated to the latest upstream Linux 5.10 kernel +as well as Buildroot 2021.02.1. The latest Buildroot release brings tons of +new software versions along with bug and security fixes. Some key components +which received an update were systemd 247 and the Docker Container Engine +20.10.6. + +### Other Changes + +- The short name of the OS used throughout the software stack was renamed to + "haos". From a users perspective not much changes, but it leads to new file + names. +- The Home Assistant CLI is now started on tty1 instead of the login prompt. The + HA CLI banner shows the IP and other device information without the need + to attach a keyboard to login. +- The default shell of the root user is now the Busybox ash. This allows to use + scp and similar tools using SSH. +- The system start is now delayed until the system time has been synchronized + with an NTP server. This avoids connection issues to SSL/TLS enabled servers + when the system time is off. In practice, the delay should only be a few + seconds. The system proceeds with startup after 90s in case the NTP server was + not reachable (e.g. if no Internet connectivity is available). + +## Device Support + +### Raspberry Pi + +All Raspberry Pi versions were updated to use the Linux Kernel 5.10 from the +Raspberry Pi team, just like Raspberry Pi OS. The latest Bluetooth firmware for +CYW43455 (Raspberry Pi 3 B+/4) with security fixes is now part of the Raspberry +Pi images. + +### Generic x86-64 + +In Home Assistant OS 6 the board/image "Intel NUC" was renamed to "Generic +x86-64". Existing "Intel NUC" installation will automatically migrate to the +"Generic x86-64" image on update. + +Already with OS 5 the "Intel NUC" image was usable for most UEFI capable x86-64 +systems. With the rename that fact is emphasized. Home Assistant OS is open +to changes to add drivers to extend support for other x86-64 platforms. However, +keep in mind that we don't have access to all x86-64 hardware, so support for +devices is on a best effort basis. + +Other Changes: + +- The Intel IGC network driver supports Intel network cards such as I225-LM/I225-V + used on some newer Intel NUC devices. + +- With Home Assistant OS 6 the latest version of the Barebox bootloader 2021.05.0 + which fixes boot from hard disks larger than 2TB. + +- The ACPI kernel driver for Thinkpad devices is enabled. + +### Open Virtualization Appliance + +The virtual disk images are now built from a sparse file as source, which leads +to smaller effective disk image sizes. Disk images are now also distributed in +the more common zip file format (except the qcow2 images which are mostly used on +Linux, they continue to be in the xz compression format). + +By default, the image now has a serial console enabled which is useful to access +Home Assistant OS on headless host systems. + +### Additional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Device Support + +Ralink rt27xx/rt28xx/rt30xx, as well as Realtek 87xx/88xx devices, are now +supported on boards that don't have onboard Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. This is also +true for the OVA image for virtualized environments (when using hardware +passthrough functionality). For the OVA image, also Intel firmwares are now +part of the image so that Intel Wi-Fi/Bluetooth devices can be used in +passthrough mode as well. + +### Homematic IP Support + +[@jens-maus] contributed OS support for Homematic/Homematic IP dual-stack support +for RPI-RF-MOD or HM-MOD-RPI-PCB devices. This together with the +[RaspberryMatic CCU Add-On](https://github.com/jens-maus/RaspberryMatic/wiki/Installation-HomeAssistant) +offers the full functionality of RaspberryMatic embedded in Home Assistant. + +### Google Coral PCIe AI Accelerator Support + +[@ryddler] enabled the driver for Google Coral PCIe TPU devices. This allows to +use Google Coral Mini PCIe Accelerator or M.2 Accelerator on all boards +supporting PCIe. + + +That's all Folks! Now go out and update! + +[@jens-maus]: https://github.com/jens-maus +[@ryddler]: https://github.com/ryddler diff --git a/source/images/blog/2021-06-11-os6/social.png b/source/images/blog/2021-06-11-os6/social.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..83545ceeea3 Binary files /dev/null and b/source/images/blog/2021-06-11-os6/social.png differ