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Home Assistant has not officially supported the Supervised installation method since the 2025.12.0 release. Today, only three installation methods are officially recommended: installing Home Assistant OS on dedicated hardware, running Home Assistant Container in Docker, or running HAOS in a virtual machine.
Despite this, I chose Home Assistant Supervised from the very beginning of my HA journey — and I still use it in 2026. On one hand, it provides essentially the same functionality as a dedicated installation or a virtual machine. On the other hand, because the HA application itself runs in Docker containers, the overhead in terms of system resources is relatively low.
Even though the Supervised installation method is no longer officially supported, I still use it without any problems — in fact, I’ve been running it on Debian Testing since day one, an operating system that has never been officially supported by the HA project either. In this guide, I’ll show you how to install Home Assistant Supervised on your own system, so you can enjoy the same setup I’ve been using successfully for years.
Step 1: Install Docker Engine
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cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources Types: deb URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/ Suites: trixie Components: stable Signed-By: /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/docker.asc Architectures: amd64 EOF wget -q https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg -O- | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/docker.asc sudo apt update sudo apt install docker-ce sudo docker version |
The last command verifies that Docker Engine has been installed correctly.
Step 2: Install the OS Agent for Home Assistant
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wget https://github.com/home-assistant/os-agent/releases/download/1.14.0/os-agent_1.14.0_linux_x86_64.deb sudo apt install ./os-agent_1.14.0_linux_x86_64.deb rm os-agent_1.14.0_linux_x86_64.deb gdbus introspect --system --dest io.hass.os --object-path /io/hass/os |
The last command verifies that the OS Agent for Home Assistant has been installed correctly.
Step 3: Install Home Assistant Supervised
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sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8123/tcp sudo firewall-cmd --reload wget https://github.com/home-assistant/supervised-installer/releases/latest/download/homeassistant-supervised.deb sudo BYPASS_OS_CHECK=true apt install ./homeassistant-supervised.deb rm homeassistant-supervised.deb |
If you’re using a firewall, you need to allow incoming TCP traffic on port 8123, the default port used by HA. As you expand your setup, you may also want to open these ports depending on the integrations you use:
- 5540/udp — Matter Hub
- 9583/tcp — MCP Server
- 5000/tcp, 8554/tcp, 8555/tcp — Frigate
Switching from SQLite to MariaDB/MySQL for Better Performance
Right from the start, I recommend changing the default database engine. If you already have a LAMP stack installed, switching to MariaDB/MySQL is a natural choice. Moving the recorder database from the default SQLite to MariaDB/MySQL is especially beneficial if you keep a lot of history — personally, I keep statistics for one year, and my database currently takes up almost 20 GB of disk space.
Main benefits of using an external database engine:
- better performance with large databases,
- less impact on HA’s main system,
- better concurrent access,
- more robust database management,
- better suited to long-term statistics,
- easier external access.
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mysql -u root -p << EOF CREATE DATABASE homeassistant; GRANT ALL ON homeassistant.* to 'homeassistant'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EOF |
Then update configuration.yaml and restart HA for the changes to take effect:
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recorder: db_url: "mysql://homeassistant:password@homeassistant/homeassistant?charset=utf8mb4" purge_keep_days: 365 |
Fixing the HDMI Audio Conflict on Debian
At the beginning of this article, I didn’t explain why I installed HA directly on Debian instead of running it in a virtual machine on Proxmox, which seems particularly popular these days. The reason is simple: my Debian machine isn’t dedicated exclusively to HA. It sits in the living room, connected to the TV, and also serves as a home entertainment system — running Kodi, for example.
Unfortunately, a Supervised installation has one significant drawback in this scenario: it prevents the host system from using audio normally. Fortunately, there’s a relatively simple workaround — though it isn’t permanent, since it has to be reapplied after every HA update.
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sudo docker stop hassio_audio sudo docker rm hassio_audio_DISABLED sudo docker rename hassio_audio hassio_audio_DISABLED |
Finally, here’s a useful command to restart HA after a Docker update:
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sudo docker start $(sudo docker ps -a -q) |
FAQ
Is Home Assistant Supervised still supported in 2026?
No — official support ended with the 2025.12.0 release. HA now officially recommends Home Assistant OS, Home Assistant Container, or a Home Assistant OS virtual machine instead.
Can I still run Home Assistant Supervised on Debian?
Yes. It isn’t officially supported, but it continues to work reliably, including on Debian Testing, which has never been an officially supported OS for this project either.
Why does installing Home Assistant Supervised break audio on my Debian machine?
The hassio_audio Docker container can take over the host’s audio system. Disabling and renaming that container (see the fix above) resolves the conflict, though the fix needs to be reapplied after each HA update.
Sources:
Install Docker Engine on Debian
Agent for Home Assistant OS
Install Home Assistant Supervised
Home Assistant Supervisor Audio Container Breaks System HDMI Audio