Working in standalone homebridge but not in systemd

[guiggess]

Hello,

I recently added the HarmonyHub platform.

I had to change permission to NPM by following the Option 2 in this tutorial

I modified the config.json find under ~/.homebridge/config.json like so :

{
    "bridge": {
        "name": "Homebridge",
        "username": "CC:21:3E:E4:DE:37",
        "port": 51826,
        "pin": "031-45-154"
    },
    "description": "Configuration file for (e)xtended Domoticz platform.",
    "platforms": [
        {
            "platform": "eDomoticz",
            "name": "eDomoticz",
            "server": "127.0.0.1",
            "port": "8080",
            "ssl": 0,
            "roomid": 0,
            "excludedDevices": []
        },
        {
            "platform": "HarmonyHub",
            "name": "Harmony Hub"
        }
    ],
    "accessories": []
}

When I launch Homebridge by typing homebridge, everything works like a charm.

BUT

I always used Homebridge like a system daemon by following the wiki tutorial.

I did cp the config.json above in /var/lib/homebridge/config.json

When I sudo systemctl restart home bridge.service I get an error in the journal : "The requested platform '" + name + "' was not registered by any plugin."

I would like to add that it works when I remove the HarmonyHub platform.

Any thoughts ?

[ramsnerm]

Did you install the Harmony plugin by using the -g operator? It looks like you have installed it "locally" so it will not be found by the system daemon. Try the following:

# This should not work - if it uninstalls it was locally installed
npm uninstall homebridge-harmonyhub

# Try to install it global
npm install -g homebridge-harmonyhub

# If it still not works you can try also
npm install -g --unsafe -perm homebridge-harmonyhub

[guiggess]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I did try to uninstall locally without any success. I uninstalled globally and then tried both installation commands (and uninstalling again in between).

I still have the same error...

[guiggess]

Another "weird" thing is that when I npm list -g I only see the harmonyhub platform but not the edomoticz one (which is working)...

[drewthor]

Having the exact same problem as @guiggess . Installing globally or even with --unsafe -perm did not fix it.

[drewthor]

I see this error in the homebridge logs:

/usr/local/lib/node_modules/homebridge/node_modules/hap-nodejs/lib/Accessory.js:243 throw new Error("Cannot update reachability on non-bridged accessory!"); ^

Error: Cannot update reachability on non-bridged accessory! at Accessory.updateReachability (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/homebridge/node_modules/hap-nodejs/lib/Accessory.js:243:11) at PlatformAccessory.updateReachability (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/homebridge/lib/platformAccessory.js:129:34) at ActivityAccessory.refreshConnection (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/homebridge-harmonyhub/lib/hub-accessory-base.js:56:17) at emitOne (events.js:101:20) at HubConnection.emit (events.js:188:7) at HubConnection._OnConnectionChanged (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/homebridge-harmonyhub/lib/hub-connection.js:151:7) at HubConnection.refreshAsync (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/homebridge-harmonyhub/lib/hub-connection.js:140:7) at HubConnection.refresh (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/homebridge-harmonyhub/lib/hub-connection.js:132:7) at HubConnection._HandleConnectionOffline (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/homebridge-harmonyhub/lib/hub-connection.js:127:14) at emitNone (events.js:86:13) at Client.emit (events.js:185:7) at Client. (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/homebridge-harmonyhub/node_modules/node-xmpp-client/lib/Client.js:157:12) at emitOne (events.js:101:20) at Connection.emit (events.js:188:7) at Socket.onDisconnect (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/homebridge-harmonyhub/node_modules/reconnect-core/index.js:59:17) at emitNone (events.js:91:20)

All of my accessories show as "No Response" despite confirming that Homebridge is running

[drewthor]

Reverting back to version 0.1.1 resolved this issue for me.

[guiggess]

And how do you do that ?

[ToddGreenfield]

npm install -g [email protected]

[guiggess]

I had no chance trying to install v0.1.1.

I still don't have a working Harmony under systemd daemon

[ToddGreenfield]

@guiggess I am using the same method you did (above) to change the location of the npm-global location (all my plugins get installed with the -g flag). I am thinking you are running into a permissions issue still. Be sure permissions for both the npm-global directory (and all recursively) and the /var/lib/homebridge directory are correct for the user you are running homebridge as defined in the homebridge.service config files. I run homebridge with a service account "homebridge", but my "pi" user owns most files... so also check all group permissions as well if you are doing that. (It also looks like you had a space in the command above "home bridge" but that could just be a typo...)

[guiggess]

@ToddGreenfield I did chmod -R 777 ~/.npm-global and chmod -R 777 /var/lib/homebridge without any success...

[ToddGreenfield]

@guiggess lets see your home bridge.service and homebridge (/etc/default) files. May also not be using the correct config.json file... see how many you have.. (sudo find / -name config.json) and look to be sure you have the platform defined in them... eventually you want to remove if more than the right ones...

[guiggess]

@ToddGreenfield here are my findings : pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /etc/default/homebridge

# Defaults / Configuration options for homebridge
# The following settings tells homebridge where to find the config.json file an$
HOMEBRIDGE_OPTS=-U /var/lib/homebridge

# If you uncomment the following line, homebridge will log more
# You can display this via systemd's journalctl: journalctl -f -u homebridge
# DEBUG=*

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/homebridge.service

[Unit]
Description=Node.js HomeKit Server
After=syslog.target network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=homebridge
EnvironmentFile=/etc/default/homebridge
# Adapt this to your specific setup (could be /usr/bin/homebridge)
# See comments below for more information
ExecStart=/usr/bin/homebridge $HOMEBRIDGE_OPTS
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10
KillMode=process

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I have one (working) config.json file under pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /var/lib/homebridge/config.json

 {
    "bridge": {
        "name": "Homebridge",
        "username": "CC:21:3E:E4:DE:39",
        "port": 51826,
        "pin": "031-45-154"
    },
    "description": "Configuration file for (e)xtended Domoticz platform.",
    "platforms": [
        {
            "platform": "eDomoticz",
            "name": "eDomoticz",
            "server": "127.0.0.1",
            "port": "8080",
            "ssl": 0,
            "roomid": 0,
            "excludedDevices": []
        }
    ],
    "accessories": []
}

and one (non-working) config.json.new file under pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /var/lib/homebridge/config.json.new

 {
    "bridge": {
        "name": "Homebridge",
        "username": "CC:21:3E:E4:DE:36",
        "port": 51826,
        "pin": "031-45-154"
    },
    "description": "Configuration file for (e)xtended Domoticz platform.",
    "platforms": [
        {
            "platform": "eDomoticz",
            "name": "eDomoticz",
            "server": "127.0.0.1",
            "port": "8080",
            "ssl": 0,
            "roomid": 0,
            "excludedDevices": []
        },
        {
            "platform": "HarmonyHub",
            "name": "Harmony Hub"
        }
    ],
    "accessories": []
}

[guiggess]

I also have one (working, but only when I launch Homebridge manually) config.json file under pi@raspberrypi:~/.homebridge $ sudo nano ~/.homebridge/config.json

 {
    "bridge": {
        "name": "Homebridge",
        "username": "CC:21:3E:E4:DE:37",
        "port": 51826,
        "pin": "031-45-154"
    },
    "description": "Configuration file for (e)xtended Domoticz platform.",
    "platforms": [
        {
            "platform": "eDomoticz",
            "name": "eDomoticz",
            "server": "127.0.0.1",
            "port": "8080",
            "ssl": 0,
            "roomid": 0,
            "excludedDevices": []
        },
        {
            "platform": "HarmonyHub",
            "name": "Harmony Hub"
        }
    ],
    "accessories": []
}

[guiggess]

Hello there, It's been a long time a try to fix this issue without any success. Today, I tried a completely fresh install on a new SD card. And I have the same behavior. Working standalone, but not as a service. I start to think that there are no solution :-(

[foomanshoe]

@guiggess I tried everything to get systemctl to start homebridge. I finally just used the init.d method. It took 2 minutes and works.

[guiggess]

@foomanshoe For my issue, it looks like HarmonyHub isn't installed in the same directory. So I created a symlink between the "normal" location and the actual one, and it worked !

[drewthor]

@guiggess You got this working now with the latest version? I’d also be interested to know how long this hub works for you. Whenever I run this hub all of my activities become unreachable/unusable after a couple days

[guiggess]

@aturn3 So, here is the complete process that I followed for making homebridge-harmonyhub work : Install Raspbian Lite (https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/)

---

Install Domoticz

• sudo curl -L install.domoticz.com | sudo bash

---

Install Homebridge :

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade
• sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
• sudo reboot
• sudo apt-get install git make
• curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash
• sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
• sudo apt-get install libavahi-compat-libdnssd-dev
• sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm homebridge
• https://timleland.com/setup-homebridge-to-start-on-bootup/

---

Install homebridge-edomoticz

• sudo npm install -g homebridge-edomoticz

---

Change NPM permissions :

• mkdir ~/.npm-global
• npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'
• export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH
• source ~/.profile

---

Install homebridge-harmonyhub :

• npm install -g homebridge-harmonyhub

---

Create a symlink :

• sudo ln -s ~/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/homebridge-harmonyhub/ /usr/lib/node_modules/homebridge-harmonyhub

---

Edit config.json :

• sudo nano /var/lib/homebridge/config.json

{
    "bridge": {
        "name": "Homebridge",
        "username": "CC:21:3E:E4:DE:37",
        "port": 51826,
        "pin": "031-45-154"
    },
    "description": "Configuration file for (e)xtended Domoticz platform.",
    "platforms": [
        {
            "platform": "eDomoticz",
            "name": "eDomoticz",
            "server": "127.0.0.1",
            "port": "8080",
            "ssl": 0,
            "roomid": 0,
            "excludedDevices": []
        },
        {
            "platform": "HarmonyHub",
            "name": "Harmony Hub"
        }
    ],
    "accessories": []
}

ENJOY !

PS : I should give a try by changing NPM permissions before installing anything.

[guiggess]

Oh, and BTW, if nothing works, you can still add the HarmonyHub inside Domoticz and have it available in HomeKit that way.

[malmentm]

None got a solution for this? I have no idea how to get my home bridge pi to auto boot and with a functional harmony plugin. Works standalone but not as service

[malmentm]

@foomanshoe how did you do that? I also tried but get exactly the same results, it seem to work and I can flip the switches but nothing happens. If I start the service manually (init.d) it does work if I delete the cached accessory file. But never works after a reboot even though the service starts.

[guiggess]

@malmentm I succeeded by following the sequence posted above

[flipside786]

i had the same issue because of the same root cause posted by guiggess.

I had to find the location of the harmony-hub installation and create a symlink from /usr/lib/node_modules/ to the location of the homebridge-harmonyhub folder