Feature request: Support remote serial devices via usbip

[poldim]

Hardware Environment

• [X] Raspberry Pi 4
• [X] Synology with HA via docker container

System Health

version	core-2021.5.3
installation_type	Home Assistant OS
dev	false
hassio	true
docker	true
virtualenv	false
python_version	3.8.9
os_name	Linux
os_version	5.4.83-v7l
arch	armv7l
timezone	America/Los_Angeles

Home Assistant Community Store

GitHub API	ok
Github API Calls Remaining	4991
Installed Version	1.12.3
Stage	running
Available Repositories	819
Installed Repositories	1

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 5.13
update_channel	stable
supervisor_version	supervisor-2021.04.3
docker_version	19.03.15
disk_total	28.6 GB
disk_used	6.8 GB
healthy	true
supported	true
board	rpi4
supervisor_api	ok
version_api	ok
installed_addons	Home Assistant Google Drive Backup (0.104.3), Samba share (9.3.1), AdGuard Home (4.0.0), SSH & Web Terminal (8.2.1), IDE (2.2.0), Check Home Assistant configuration (3.7.1), AirCast (3.1.0), Z-Wave JS to MQTT (0.15.0)

Lovelace

dashboards	1
resources	0
views	6
mode	storage

Supervisor logs:

Journal logs:

Kernel logs:

Description of problem:

This was added to the month of what the heck (https://community.home-assistant.io/t/wth-can-remote-serial-devices-not-be-easily-mounted-as-dev-tty-virtual-devices/228148) but isn't getting any love. I'm not sure if this belongs at the supervisor level or the OS, but hoping it could get some attention.

This post, https://community.home-assistant.io/t/rpi-as-z-wave-zigbee-over-ip-server-for-hass/23006, outlines how you can install this on a rpi but this doesnt work in HASSos.

[HarrisonPace]

I support this feature request, without it integrations have to implement ways to support remote serial devices.

Or users have to resort to using Home Assistant on Generic Linux. This is a common use case that should be supported by HASSOS.

[bartgrefte]

I'm interested in support for usbip as well (in the OVA image), since there are virtual machine hypervisors where passthroughing USB devices is only possible at the controller level, not individual devices. Support for usbip would help get around that.

[TheBinaryLoop]

I'm giving this feature also a thumbs up

[OptimusGREEN]

Yup, this would be a huge step toward high availability. thumbs up

[mjkl-gh]

While researching this I found this interesting documentation. Apparantly an USB attached to Home assistant OS can be used for more than just filling an authorized_keys file:

https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/blob/fd7d0253f3304b24377155252a0105fdba7920da/Documentation/configuration.md

Specifically in this case you can use it to add files to /etc/modules-load.d or /etc/modbprobe.d

/etc/modules-load.d is persistent and you can add your configuration files there. See Systemd modules load. You can add the modules configuration files in /etc/modprobe.d

This persists and will be reloaded when updating. This way you can load vhci-hcd which will persist through updates. Then a RUDY container converted to add-on would be required to mount devices over USB/IP or so it seems

Would be nice to have vhci-hcd enabled out of the box maybe?

edit:

Just noticed this commit was done 4 hours ago:

Enable USB/IP kernel modules (https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/pull/2047)

My apologies

[agners]

Yeah above comment triggered that PR :smile:

It should be possible to create an add-on which has kernel modules permissions. This could then setup USB/IP host or client depending on configuration.

[warlordattack]

hello is it possible to mount usb devices over ip into HA OS ? (VM inside synology nas) bt dongle, camera ... from other linux box

[mjkl-gh]

hello is it possible to mount usb devices over ip into HA OS ? (VM inside synology nas) bt dongle, camera ... from other linux box

Not yet, preparing changes were merged, but are not part of the current version yet.

Moreover, Additional work is required to make this possible.

Currently it shoulde be possible to load the missing kernel modules through:

https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/blob/fd7d0253f3304b24377155252a0105fdba7920da/Documentation/configuration.md

And another docker container is required to do the actual mounten of the hardware. RUDY is a possibility for that. It will require some tinkering, but it should work.

[Apocrathia]

I've made a stab at creating a RUDYmentary add-on. I don't have a USB/IP server to work with at the moment, so I've gotten it to the point that I can configure the script and successfully connect to my MQTT broker. If anyone wants to test it, feel free to try. I'll hopefully get a chance to get this more fleshed out soon.

https://github.com/Apocrathia/home-assistant-addons

[yepeekai]

With skyconnect and "year of the voice" I think this feature make more and more sense because skyconnect is a usb device and year of the voice will require a lot of computing power so having HA OS as a VM will enable to give it a lot of power without having to give it a full machine. Also, it makes it possible to have the skyconnect at the best spot (for signal strengh) in the house while the server sit in a not used place in the basement.

I have HA OS in a VM in HyperV. I do blame hyper V for not having the usb assignment to VM functionality!!! but still if HA OS can get around that limitation, it would be a welcome addition.

I am currently working on an alternative which require HA to be installed in supervised mode which is not recommended at a lot of places in the documentation and it make stuff a lot more complex to setup ...

[yepeekai]

I see that 11 RC was released but this issue is not part of it :( When I sort active issues by how many likes it has (thumbs up) it is the first one on the list. When will it receive the love and attention it deserves?

[jschneekloth]

This would be a really useful feature. I'm virtualizing HA, but can't really enable high availability with it due to lack of USBIP support (or similar) at OS level. I can likely just install supervised on plain linux to get things working, but the convenience of home assistant os is really nice to have.

[yepeekai]

There is this third party add on that works for me: https://github.com/AverageJoe89/hassio-usbip-mounter, you have to add the link in the add on repositories list of home assistant to see it (the 3 little dot in the upper right corner of the screen when you add an add on) On my hyperv server, I installed usbip server from this place: https://github.com/dorssel/usbipd-win and it works. I currently have the skyconnect passing through this.

[Timmo3]

Hi, I would like to see this feature as well as a built-in option. I tried the AverageJoe89 usbip mounter, but it constantly crashed (I'm running on HA Core 11.2). My goal would be moving HA into a proxmox environment...

[edwin-2023]

And another vote for some kind of usb over ip. We really need this. At the moment it's going to become a nono for me to use HA :(

[lildadou]

https://github.com/AverageJoe89/hassio-usbip-mounter seems to do the trick.

As an alternative solution, I've noticed that the zigbee2mqtt add-on lets you connect to a remote dongle using socat. It's not usb-over-IP, but when the device simply communicates via serial, it's an easier solution to implement.