home-assistant.io/source/getting-started/index.markdown

---
layout: page
title: "Getting Started"
description: "Step by step guide to get started with Home Assistant."
date: 2014-12-18 22:57
sidebar: false
comments: false
sharing: true
footer: true
---

<div class='install-instructions-container'>
<input name='install-instructions' type='radio' id='normal-install' checked>
<input name='install-instructions' type='radio' id='raspberry-install'>
<input name='install-instructions' type='radio' id='docker-install'>
<label class='menu-selector normal' for='normal-install'>Install on local machine</label>
<label class='menu-selector raspberry' for='raspberry-install'>Install on a Raspberry Pi</label>
<label class='menu-selector docker' for='docker-install'>Install using Docker</label>
<div class='install-instructions normal'>

<h3>Preparation</h3>
<!-- ###### Preparation START ######################## -->
<div class='prep-instructions-container'>
<input name='prep-instructions' type='radio' id='generic-prep' checked>
<input name='prep-instructions' type='radio' id='fedora-prep'>
<input name='prep-instructions' type='radio' id='centos-prep'>
<label class='menu-selector generic' for='generic-prep'>Generic</label>
<label class='menu-selector fedora' for='fedora-prep'>Fedora</label>
<label class='menu-selector centos' for='centos-prep'>CentOS</label>

<!-- ###### Preparation instructions Generic ######################## -->
<div class='prep-instructions generic'>
Installing and running Home Assistant on your local machine is easy. Make sure you have <a href='https://www.python.org/downloads/'>Python 3.4</a> installed and execute the following code in a console:


</div>
<!-- ###### Preparation instructions Fedora ######################## -->
<div class='prep-instructions fedora'>
<p>The preparation of a <a href='https://fedoraproject.org'>Fedora</a> 22 host will only take a couple of minutes. First install Python 3.4 and the other needed packages out of the <a href='https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb'>Fedora Package Collection</a>. This ensure that you receive updates in the future.</p>

<p class='note'>
It's assumed that your user has an entry in the sudoers file. Otherwise, run the commands which needs more privileges as root.
</p>

```bash
sudo dnf -y install python3 python3-devel gcc
```

</div>
<!-- ##### Preparation instructions Centos ######################### -->
<div class='prep-instructions centos'>

<p><a href='https://www.centos.org/'>CentOS</a> is providing longtime support and often not shipping the latest release of a software component. To run, Python 3.x on CentOS <a href='https://www.softwarecollections.org/en/scls/rhscl/rh-python34/'>Software Collections</a> needs to be activated.</p>

<h5>Step 1. Install the tools for the Software Collection</h5>

```bash
sudo yum -y install scl-utils
```

<h5>Step 2. Make the repository available.</h5>

```bash
sudo yum -y install https://www.softwarecollections.org/en/scls/rhscl/rh-python34/epel-7-x86_64/download/rhscl-rh-python34-epel-7-x86_64.noarch.rpm
```

<h5>Step 3. Install Python 3.x</h5>

```bash
sudo yum -y install rh-python34
```

<h5>Step 4. Start using software collections:</h5>

```bash
scl enable rh-python34 bash
```

</div>

</div>

<br />
<!-- ###### Preparation END ######################## -->

<h3>Installation</h3>

<p>
```bash
pip3 install homeassistant
hass --open-ui
```
</p>
<p>Running these commands will:</p>
<ol>
<li>Install Home Assistant</li>
<li>Launch Home Assistant and serve web interface on <a href='http://localhost:8123'>http://localhost:8123</a></li>
</ol>
<br />

<!-- ###### Post-Installation START ######################## -->
<h3>Post-Installation</h3>

<div class='post-instructions-container'>
<input name='post-instructions' type='radio' id='generic-post' checked>
<input name='post-instructions' type='radio' id='fedora-post'>
<input name='post-instructions' type='radio' id='debian-post'>
<label class='menu-selector generic-post' for='generic-post'>Generic</label>
<label class='menu-selector fedora-post' for='fedora-post'>Fedora/CentOS</label>
<!-- <label class='menu-selector debian-post' for='debian-post'>Debian</label> -->

<!-- ###### Post-installation instructions Generic ######################## -->
<div class='post-instructions generic-post'>
<p>There is nothing else to do. If you run into any issues, please see the <a href='{{site_root}}/getting-started/troubleshooting.html'>troubleshooting page</a>.</p>

<p>If you want to see what Home Assistant can do, you can start the demo mode by running <code>hass --demo-mode</code>.</p>

<p>In the future, if you want to update to the latest version, run <code>pip3 install --upgrade home-assistant</code>.</p>

</div>
<!-- ###### Post-installation instructions Fedora/CentOS ######################## -->
<div class='post-instructions fedora-post'>
<p>By default, the access to port 8123 is not allowed. If you want to allow other hosts in your local network access, open port 8123.</p>

```bash
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8123/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
```
<p>Home Assistant will serve its web interface on <a href='http://[IP address of the host]:8123'>http://[IP address of the host]:8123</a>.</p>

<p>If you want that Home Assistant is lauched automatically, an extra step is needed to setup <code>systemd</code>. You need a service file to control Home Assistant with <code>systemd</code>. <!-- The <code>WorkingDirectory</code> and the <code>PYTHONPATH</code> must point to your clone git repository. --></p>

<!-- WorkingDirectory=/home/fab/home-assistant/
Environment="PYTHONPATH=/home/fab/home-assistant/" -->


```bash
su -c 'cat <<EOF >> /lib/systemd/system/home-assistant.service
[Unit]
Description=Home Assistant
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3.4 -m homeassistant

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF'
```

<p>You need to reload <code>systemd</code> to make the daemon aware of the new configuration. Enable and launch Home Assistant after that.</p>

```bash
sudo systemctl --system daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable home-assistant
sudo systemctl start home-assistant
```

<p>If everything went well, <code>sudo systemctl start home-assistant</code> should give you a positive feedback.</p>

```bash
$ sudo systemctl status home-assistant -l
● home-assistant.service - Home Assistant
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/home-assistant.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2015-06-25 23:38:37 CEST; 3min 13s ago
 Main PID: 8557 (python3.4)
   CGroup: /system.slice/home-assistant.service
           └─8557 /usr/bin/python3.4 -m homeassistant
[...]
```

<p>To get Home Assistant's logging output, simple use <code>journalctl</code>.</p>

```bash
sudo journalctl -f -u home-assistant
```

<p>In the future, if you want to update to the latest version, run <code>pip3 install --upgrade home-assistant</code>.</p>

<p class='note'>
Those instructions were written for Fedora 22 Server and Workstation. They may work for Cloud flavor as well but this was not tested.
</p>


</div>
<!-- ##### Post-installation instructions Debian ######################### -->
<div class='post-instructions debian-post'>

<p>Coming soon...</p>



</div>

</div>

<br />
<!-- ###### Post-installation END ######################## -->

</div>

<!-- ###### Docker START ######################## -->
<div class='install-instructions docker'>
<p>Installation with Docker is straightforward. Adjust the following command so that <code>/path/to/your/config/</code> points at the folder where you want to store your config and run it:</p>

```bash
docker run -d --name="home-assistant" -v /path/to/your/config:/config -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro --net=host balloob/home-assistant
```

<p>This will launch Home Assistant and serve its web interface from port 8123 on your Docker host.</p>

<p class='note'>
When using boot2docker on OS X you are unable to map the local time to your Docker container. Replace <code>-v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro</code> with <code>-e "TZ=America/Los_Angeles"</code> (replacing America/Los_Angeles with <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones'>your timezone</a>)
</p>

</div>

<!-- ###### Paspberry Pi START ######################## -->
<div class='install-instructions raspberry'>

<p>Home Assistant uses Python 3.4. This makes installation on a Raspberry Pi a bit more difficult as it is not available in the package repository. Please follow the following instructions to get it up and running.</p>

<p><b>Step 1. Install pyenv</b></p>

```bash
curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yyuu/pyenv-installer/master/bin/pyenv-installer | bash
```

<p>After the installation is done, run:</p>

```bash
nano ~/.bashrc
```

<p>Then add these lines to the end of the file and save:</p>
```
export PATH="$HOME/.pyenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init -)"
eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"
```

<h5>Step 2. Install requirements</h5>

```bash
sudo apt-get install python3-dev
sudo apt-get install libsqlite3-dev libreadline-dev libbz2-dev
```

<p>Log out and then back in so your bashrc is reloaded.</p>

<p class='note'>
NOTE: the rest of the commands are not being run as sudo and will install python etc under you user's home directory.
</p>

<p><b>Step 3. Install python 3.4.2 (this will take a few hours)</b></p>

```bash
pyenv install 3.4.2
```

<p><b>Step 4. Create Python Virtual Environment</b></p>
```bash
pyenv virtualenv 3.4.2 homeassistant
```

<p><b>Step 5. Set the virtual environment</b></p>
```bash
cd home-assistant
pyenv local homeassistant
```

<p><b>Step 6. Install Home Assistant</b></p>
```bash
pip3 install homeassistant
```

<p><b>Step 7. Start it up</b></p>
```bash
hass
```

<p>It will be up and running on port 8123</p>

<p>In the future, if you want to update to the latest version, run <code>pip3 install --upgrade home-assistant</code>.</p>

</div>

</div>

###[Next step: configuring Home Assistant &raquo;](/getting-started/configuration.html)