Homeassistant as VM does not start after shutdown

[chuckfy]

trafficstars

Describe the issue you are experiencing

Homeassistant is installed as an appliance / VM under truenas. Original installation followed this guide

After creation of the VM it does start and work normally. When it is shutdown it usually will not start afterwards. One time it took three shutdowns until the VM did not start anymore for good.

The error message under truenas reads:

[EFAULT] Unable to define domain for homeassistant: cannot serialize None (type NoneType)

There are reports from different users which are now facing the same issue.

What operating system image do you use?

ova (for Virtual Machines)

What version of Home Assistant Operating System is installed?

11.1

Did you upgrade the Operating System.

Yes, but I can't tell which update may have introduced the behavior because for an update the VM itself does not have to be shut down.

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Create VM
2. Stop VM / Reboot Server
3. VM will not start

[EFAULT] Unable to define domain for homeassistant: cannot serialize None (type NoneType)

Anything in the Supervisor logs that might be useful for us?

no because HA does not start

Anything in the Host logs that might be useful for us?

no because HA does not start

System information

System Information

version	core-2023.10.5
installation_type	Home Assistant OS
dev	false
hassio	true
docker	true
user	root
virtualenv	false
python_version	3.11.5
os_name	Linux
os_version	6.1.59
arch	x86_64
timezone	Europe/Berlin
config_dir	/config

Home Assistant Community Store

GitHub API	ok
GitHub Content	ok
GitHub Web	ok
GitHub API Calls Remaining	4944
Installed Version	1.33.0
Stage	running
Available Repositories	1326
Downloaded Repositories	8

AccuWeather

can_reach_server	ok
remaining_requests	37

Home Assistant Cloud

logged_in	false
can_reach_cert_server	ok
can_reach_cloud_auth	ok
can_reach_cloud	ok

Home Assistant Supervisor

host_os	Home Assistant OS 11.1
update_channel	stable
supervisor_version	supervisor-2023.10.1
agent_version	1.6.0
docker_version	24.0.6
disk_total	48.5 GB
disk_used	8.5 GB
healthy	true
supported	true
board	ova
supervisor_api	ok
version_api	ok
installed_addons	File editor (5.6.0), Mosquitto broker (6.3.1), RaspberryMatic CCU (3.71.12.20231020), Samba Backup (5.2.0), ESPHome (2023.10.3)

Dashboards

dashboards	4
resources	5
views	4
mode	storage

Recorder

oldest_recorder_run	26. Oktober 2023 um 19:37
current_recorder_run	1. November 2023 um 21:19
estimated_db_size	343.78 MiB
database_engine	sqlite
database_version	3.41.2

Additional information

Logfile from truenas:

2023-10-19 21:27:36.109+0000: starting up libvirt version: 7.0.0, package: 3 (Andrea Bolognani <[email protected]> Fri, 26 Feb 2021 16:46:34 +0100), qemu version: 5.2.0Debian 1:5.2+dfsg-11+deb11u2, kernel: 5.15.131+truenas, hostname: truenas.local
LC_ALL=C \
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin \
HOME=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/domain-3-13_HomeAssistantApp \
XDG_DATA_HOME=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/domain-3-13_HomeAssistantApp/.local/share \
XDG_CACHE_HOME=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/domain-3-13_HomeAssistantApp/.cache \
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/domain-3-13_HomeAssistantApp/.config \
QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=spice \
/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 \
-name guest=13_HomeAssistantApp,debug-threads=on \
-S \
-object secret,id=masterKey0,format=raw,file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/domain-3-13_HomeAssistantApp/master-key.aes \
-blockdev '{"driver":"file","filename":"/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE.fd","node-name":"libvirt-pflash0-storage","auto-read-only":true,"discard":"unmap"}' \
-blockdev '{"node-name":"libvirt-pflash0-format","read-only":true,"driver":"raw","file":"libvirt-pflash0-storage"}' \
-blockdev '{"driver":"file","filename":"/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/13_HomeAssistantApp_VARS.fd","node-name":"libvirt-pflash1-storage","auto-read-only":true,"discard":"unmap"}' \
-blockdev '{"node-name":"libvirt-pflash1-format","read-only":false,"driver":"raw","file":"libvirt-pflash1-storage"}' \
-machine pc-i440fx-5.2,accel=kvm,usb=off,dump-guest-core=off,pflash0=libvirt-pflash0-format,pflash1=libvirt-pflash1-format,memory-backend=pc.ram \
-cpu Broadwell-IBRS,vme=on,ss=on,vmx=on,pdcm=on,f16c=on,rdrand=on,hypervisor=on,arat=on,tsc-adjust=on,umip=on,md-clear=on,stibp=on,arch-capabilities=on,ssbd=on,xsaveopt=on,pdpe1gb=on,abm=on,ibpb=on,amd-stibp=on,amd-ssbd=on,skip-l1dfl-vmentry=on,pschange-mc-no=on \
-m 4096 \
-object memory-backend-ram,id=pc.ram,size=4294967296 \
-overcommit mem-lock=off \
-smp 4,sockets=1,dies=1,cores=2,threads=2 \
-uuid df6c288c-9edb-4afc-9c73-542bc1de9e3d \
-no-user-config \
-nodefaults \
-chardev socket,id=charmonitor,fd=42,server,nowait \
-mon chardev=charmonitor,id=monitor,mode=control \
-rtc base=utc \
-no-shutdown \
-boot strict=on \
-device nec-usb-xhci,id=usb,bus=pci.0,addr=0x4 \
-device virtio-serial-pci,id=virtio-serial0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x5 \
-blockdev '{"driver":"host_device","filename":"/dev/zvol/pool/homeassistant","aio":"threads","node-name":"libvirt-1-storage","cache":{"direct":true,"no-flush":false},"auto-read-only":true,"discard":"unmap"}' \
-blockdev '{"node-name":"libvirt-1-format","read-only":false,"cache":{"direct":true,"no-flush":false},"driver":"raw","file":"libvirt-1-storage"}' \
-device virtio-blk-pci,bus=pci.0,addr=0x6,drive=libvirt-1-format,id=virtio-disk0,bootindex=1,write-cache=on \
-netdev tap,fd=47,id=hostnet0,vhost=on,vhostfd=48 \
-device virtio-net-pci,netdev=hostnet0,id=net0,mac=REDACTED,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3 \
-chardev pty,id=charserial0 \
-device isa-serial,chardev=charserial0,id=serial0 \
-chardev spicevmc,id=charchannel0,name=vdagent \
-device virtserialport,bus=virtio-serial0.0,nr=1,chardev=charchannel0,id=channel0,name=com.redhat.spice.0 \
-chardev socket,id=charchannel1,fd=49,server,nowait \
-device virtserialport,bus=virtio-serial0.0,nr=2,chardev=charchannel1,id=channel1,name=org.qemu.guest_agent.0 \
-device usb-tablet,id=input0,bus=usb.0,port=1 \
-spice port=5902,addr=0.0.0.0,seamless-migration=on \
-device qxl-vga,id=video0,ram_size=67108864,vram_size=67108864,vram64_size_mb=0,vgamem_mb=16,max_outputs=1,xres=1024,yres=768,bus=pci.0,addr=0x2 \
-device virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x7 \
-sandbox on,obsolete=deny,elevateprivileges=deny,spawn=deny,resourcecontrol=deny \
-msg timestamp=on
char device redirected to /dev/pts/2 (label charserial0)

[bradarnold]

I am experiencing the same issue after allowing HAOS to update last night.

[chuckfy]

I am experiencing the same issue after allowing HAOS to update last night.

Can you add from which version you updated? Since I didn't shutdown the VM for month I can say for sure which was the last working version.

[agners]

generic-x86-64 (Generic UEFI capable x86-64 systems)

Are you truly using this image? We have an image optimized for virtualization named ova. This should be used on virtual machines.

I am not familiar with TrueNAS, what type of Hypervisor is underneath?

[EFAULT] Unable to define domain for homeassistant: cannot serialize None (type NoneType)

To me this looks like an error message from TrueNAS itself, I don't think that this is caused by Home Assistant OS.

[chuckfy]

generic-x86-64 (Generic UEFI capable x86-64 systems)

Are you truly using this image? We have an image optimized for virtualization named ova. This should be used on virtual machines.

Board | ova

I am not familiar with TrueNAS, what type of Hypervisor is underneath?

TrueNAS Scale uses KVM if I'm not mistaken.

[EFAULT] Unable to define domain for homeassistant: cannot serialize None (type NoneType)

To me this looks like an error message from TrueNAS itself, I don't think that this is caused by Home Assistant OS. As I linked, I also created a ticket over there and cross linked this report there. However, as others have stated in my linked thread:

1. the issue seemed to have appeared after updating home assistant
2. home assistant is the only VM affected

Interestingly enough I was not able to reproduce the error on another machine using the exact same home assistant zvol. On the other hand I couldn't replicate my system 1:1 although I imported my config.

[matthewfurr]

I ran into this same problem today. The issue was actually caused by USB device that was added to the VM. Somehow the USB that was previously selected was no longer selected, but still an option. The VM started after adding it back.

[bradarnold]

This was also the problem that I found.

[md-bo]

I haven't rebooted after upgrading to cobia yet, but I couldn't reproduce the issue on another machine with no USB devices attached, so I would assume this seems to have been the culprit.

[marcinwasilewski]

I have the same problem, not after an update to HAOS but after I plgged out a USB zigbee dongle that was causing some I/O issues on the usb controller. So after removing the missing USB device from the settings the VM is coming back it seems

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. To keep our backlog manageable we have to clean old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant OS version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.