--- title: OpenWrt (ubus) description: Instructions on how to integrate OpenWRT routers into Home Assistant. ha_category: - Presence Detection ha_release: 0.7.6 ha_iot_class: Local Polling ha_domain: ubus ha_platforms: - device_tracker ha_integration_type: integration --- This is a presence detection scanner for [OpenWrt](https://openwrt.org/) using [ubus](https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/techref/ubus). It scans for changes in `hostapd.*`, which will detect and report changes in devices connected to the access point on the router. Before this scanner can be used you have to install the ubus RPC packages on OpenWrt (versions older than 18.06.x do not require the `uhttpd-mod-ubus` package): ```bash opkg update opkg install rpcd-mod-file uhttpd-mod-ubus ``` And create on your OpenWrt device a read-only user to be used by setting up the ACL file `/usr/share/rpcd/acl.d/user.json`. ```json { "user": { "description": "Read only user access role", "read": { "ubus": { "*": [ "*" ] }, "uci": [ "*" ] }, "write": {} } } ``` Restart the services. This ACL file needs to be recreated after updating/upgrading your OpenWrt firmware. ```bash # /etc/init.d/rpcd restart && /etc/init.d/uhttpd restart ``` Check if the `file` namespaces is registered with the RPC server. ```bash # ubus list | grep file file ``` After this is done, add the following to your `configuration.yaml` file: ```yaml # Example configuration.yaml entry device_tracker: - platform: ubus host: ROUTER_IP_ADDRESS username: YOUR_ADMIN_USERNAME password: YOUR_ADMIN_PASSWORD ``` {% configuration %} host: description: The IP address of your router, e.g., 192.168.1.1. required: true type: string username: description: The username of a user with administrative privileges, usually `root`. required: true type: string password: description: The password for your given admin account. required: true type: string dhcp_software: description: "The DHCP software used in your router: `dnsmasq`, `odhcpd`, or `none`." required: false default: dnsmasq type: string {% endconfiguration %} See the [device tracker integration page](/integrations/device_tracker/) for instructions how to configure the people to be tracked. ## Troubleshooting If you find that this never creates `known_devices.yaml`, or if you need more information on the communication chain between Home Assistant and OpenWrt, follow these steps to grab the packet stream and gain insight into what's happening. ### Increase Log Level 1. On your Home Assistant device, stop Home Assistant 2. Adjust `configuration.yaml` to log more detail for the `device_tracker` component ```yaml logger: default: warn logs: homeassistant.components.device_tracker: debug ``` 3. In another window, tail the logfile in the configuration directory: ```bash tail -f home-assistant.log | grep device_tracker ``` 4. If you see a Python stack trace like the following, check your configuration for correct username/password. ```txt 17-04-28 10:43:30 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.loader] Loaded device_tracker from homeassistant.components.device_tracker 17-04-28 10:43:30 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.loader] Loaded device_tracker.ubus from homeassistant.components.device_tracker.ubus 17-04-28 10:43:30 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.setup] Setting up device_tracker 17-04-28 10:43:31 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.device_tracker] Setting up device_tracker.ubus 17-04-28 10:43:31 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.device_tracker] Error setting up platform ubus File "/opt/homeassistant/venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/homeassistant/integrations/device_tracker/__init__.py", line 152, in async_setup_platform File "/opt/homeassistant/venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/homeassistant/integrations/device_tracker/ubus.py", line 36, in get_scanner File "/opt/homeassistant/venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/homeassistant/integrations/device_tracker/ubus.py", line 58, in __init__ File "/opt/homeassistant/venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/homeassistant/integrations/device_tracker/ubus.py", line 156, in _get_session_id File "/opt/homeassistant/venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/homeassistant/integrations/device_tracker/ubus.py", line 147, in _req_json_rpc 17-04-28 10:43:31 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling 17-04-28 10:43:31 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling ``` 5. If you see lines like the following repeated at intervals that correspond to the check interval from the configuration (12 seconds by default), then Home Assistant is correctly polling the router, and you'll need to look at what the router is sending back. ```txt 17-04-28 10:50:34 INFO (Thread-7) [homeassistant.components.device_tracker.ubus] Checking ARP ``` ### Inspect Packets With TCPDump _These steps require that `tcpdump` is installed on your Home Assistant device, and that you have a utility such as [Wireshark](https://www.wireshark.org) for viewing the packets. It also assumes that Home Assistant is communicating with your router over HTTP and not HTTPS._ 1. On your Home Assistant device, stop Home Assistant 2. In another shell on your Home Assistant device, start tcpdump ```bash sudo tcpdump -nnvXSs 0 -w /var/tmp/dt.out 'host and port 80' ``` - In this example we are only looking for traffic to or from port 80, and we are writing the packet stream out to `/var/tmp/dt.out` 3. Start Home Assistant 4. After a few seconds you should see a line like `Got xx` where `xx` is an incrementing number. This indicates that it has captured packets that match our filter. After you see this number increment a few times (>20), you can hit `Ctrl-C` to cancel the capture. 5. Transfer `/var/tmp/dt.out` to the machine where you're running Wireshark and either drag/drop it onto the Wireshark window or use File/Open to open the capture file. 6. In the window that opens, look for the first line that reads `POST /ubus`. Right click on this line, choose Follow and then HTTP Stream to view just the HTTP stream for this connection. 7. The first `POST` will show Home Assistant logging into ubus and receiving a session identifier back. It will look something like this: ```txt POST /ubus HTTP/1.1 Host: 10.68.0.1 Accept: */* User-Agent: python-requests/2.13.0 Connection: keep-alive Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Content-Length: 161 {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "params": ["00000000000000000000000000000000", "session", "login", {"password": "", "username": "root"}], "method": "call", "id": 1} HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/json Transfer-Encoding: chunked Connection: keep-alive {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":[0,{"ubus_rpc_session":"8b4e1632389fcfd09e96a792e01c332c","timeout":300,"expires":300,"acls":{"access-group":{"unauthenticated":["read"],"user":["read"]},"ubus":{"*":["*"],"session":["access","login"]},"uci":{"*":["read"]}},"data":{"username":"root"}}]} ``` 8. In the response above, the portion that reads `"result":[0,` indicates that ubus accepted the login without issue. If this is not `0`, search online for what ubus status corresponds to the number you're receiving and address any issues that it brings to light. 9. Otherwise, back in the main Wireshark window click the `x` in the right side of the filter bar where it reads `tcp.stream eq 0`. Scroll down until you find the next `POST /ubus` line and view the HTTP stream again. This request is Home Assistant actually requesting information and will look something like the following: ```txt POST /ubus HTTP/1.1 Host: 10.68.0.1 Accept: */* User-Agent: python-requests/2.13.0 Connection: keep-alive Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Content-Length: 114 {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "params": ["8b4e1632389fcfd09e96a792e01c332c", "hostapd.*", "", {}], "method": "list", "id": 1} HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/json Transfer-Encoding: chunked Connection: keep-alive {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":{}} ``` 10. In this case we are actually receiving a valid response with no data. The request says that we are looking for ARP information from `hostapd.*`, which is the access point on the router. In my environment I don't use the AP on the router, and so it was correctly returning no data. Armed with this information, I know that I cannot use this integration for device tracking or presence. ### Cleanup When you're done troubleshooting, remember to reset your logging configuration and delete any capture files that contain sensitive information.