Update of Node.js, UI and apt-get upgrade/update does not survive restart of HB container

[michalw2-alt]

Update of Node.js, UI and apt-get upgrade/update does not survive restart of HB container

Restart of container always resets: node.js, HomeBridge UI version and all libraries updated using: apt-get upgrade/update to outdated version.

Can you please fix this issue?

[ifeign]

Why are you upgrading this way? I perform all UI and Homebridge version updates via the UI and they survive reboots just fine

[michalw2-alt]

Why are you upgrading this way? I perform all UI and Homebridge version updates via the UI and they survive reboots just fine

you cannot perform update of node.js using WebUI. It's only possible using command:
"Update Node.js: hb-service update-node"
but after restart of container changes are getting lost and node.js is reverted back to old version.
Over the time some of the plugins will require higher Node.js version so - sooner or later this will became more serious problem.

Also when you update UI to most recent UI version (homebridge-config-ui-x v4.50.6) using WebUI - it also does not survive a reboot of container and is getting revert back to old version.

[ifeign]

Why are you upgrading this way? I perform all UI and Homebridge version updates via the UI and they survive reboots just fine

you cannot perform update of node.js using WebUI. It's only possible using command:

"Update Node.js: hb-service update-node"

but after restart of container changes are getting lost and node.js is reverted back to old version.

Over the time some of the plugins will require higher Node.js version so - sooner or later this will became more serious problem.

Also when you update UI to most recent UI version (homebridge-config-ui-x v4.50.6) using WebUI - it also does not survive a reboot of container and is getting revert back to old version.

Hmm, it appears you are correct. How odd, because everything else persists

[michalw2-alt]

Probably some of the folders within containers need to be placed locally on HAOS instead of being recreated every time HomeBridge container is started (with same old Node.js version) but not sure if this can be done to persist Node.js (as update is complex).
Otherwise HB container needs to be rebuild (with updated Node.js version) every time when some components like Node.js needs to be updated. First option is much better.

[ifeign]

There is now a new version of Homebridge that requires a higher node version. The container needs to be rebuilt

[ifeign]

I’m no developer, but I’ve been reading the documentation for HASS addons, and I believe the issue is that the persistent volume is not in /data/ in the config.yaml which is causing the issues described here upon restart

[michalw2-alt]

I guess we will have to wait till issue is fixed.

[ifeign]

I guess we will have to wait till issue is fixed.

Seems that way unless someone forks this. What a shame this appears to have been abandoned… considering how active @davide125 is on GitHub. I am grateful that they created this addon, but it might be time to move on

[davide125]

You're in luck, it's a rainy day and I managed to get my hands at last on a system that can run vscode and docker and all the stuff needed for the new devenv setup for this thing. I think I got something mostly working, will test it a bit more and cut a release if so.

[davide125]

Just released 0.1.8 updating this to the latest version. Note that this still doesn't preserve UI-triggered updates to homebridge itself; that might come in a later version if I can figure out a sane way to do so.

[ifeign]

Thank you for doing this! Really appreciate the existence of this addon

[msaario]

Thank you for the great work on this update. This add-on makes Home Assistant complete and bridges the few gaps to HomeKit.

[ifeign]

Just released 0.1.8 updating this to the latest version. Note that this still doesn't preserve UI-triggered updates to homebridge itself; that might come in a later version if I can figure out a sane way to do so.

Could this be the issue regarding the update not persisting? I was looking at a different HASS addon and saw this line in the config.yaml

environment:
  # Required to write to /data
  USER_ID: "0"
  KEEP_APP_RUNNING: "1"

[michalw2-alt]

Just released 0.1.8 updating this to the latest version. Note that this still doesn't preserve UI-triggered updates to homebridge itself; that might come in a later version if I can figure out a sane way to do so.

Thank you for this update. Now, HomeAssistant was able to detect Homebridge as separate bridge instance and import all its devices/accessories which is great and which was not the case in the past (accessories added inside HomeBridge addon where not visible for HomeAssistant).

[michalw2-alt]

It seems that also in updated HB addon node.js version does not survive restart of container (after restart node.js version is reverting back to 18.19.0).

[ifeign]

I wonder if it would be worth creating a GitHub action that syncs this repo’s version of homebridge from the original source. This way we wouldn’t have to create an issue every time things are updated. I’m not crazy knowledgeable about this, but I can try submit a PR

edit: here’s a starting point

name: Sync Homebridge Docker Release

on:
  release:
    types: [created]
    # Repository that triggers the event
    repositories:
      - homebridge/docker-homebridge

jobs:
  create-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Create release
      env:
        GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      run: |
        # Extract relevant information from the event payload
        TAG_NAME=$(echo $GITHUB_EVENT_PATH | jq -r '.release.tag_name')
        RELEASE_NAME=$(echo $GITHUB_EVENT_PATH | jq -r '.release.name')
        RELEASE_BODY=$(echo $GITHUB_EVENT_PATH | jq -r '.release.body')

        # Create a release using GitHub API
        curl -X POST \
          -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
          -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
          https://api.github.com/repos/your-username/your-repo/releases \
          -d "{\"tag_name\":\"$TAG_NAME\",\"name\":\"$RELEASE_NAME\",\"body\":\"$RELEASE_BODY\"}"

[iSteve-O]

I am really grateful for this add-on. I have been just ignoring the nodejs update because every time I update it my BLE devices cannot connect to my pi5 anymore.

I was hoping there would be an update soon at least to the core HB container to update the nodejs version, since now one of my plugins has an update that cannot be installed. It is still working for now, but it would be great if we could update node in a persistent way.

I really appreciate your hard work on the plugin. hopefully there will be another rainy day soon... :)

PS: I wonder if the solution above would work?

[bkarakashev]

@davide125 this is a brilliant add-on and it is perfect as I can have my HA and Homebridge in one place.
Could you please sort this issue out?
It is getting to the point where if not fixed soon this add-on won't be functional.
Thanks for all your hard work.

[ptarjan]

Ping.

[iSteve-O]

@ptarjan @bkarakashev @ifeign @michalw2-alt @msaario

This kind of stuff really bothers me in my setup and I couldn't take it anymore, so I forked it and updated it in the way I wanted for my setup.

My new version gets the latest image from homebridge/homebridge instead of a static image. As a result, it should be trivial for me to push updates.

Feel free to use my new version if you are (1) only using updated plugins that work with the latest homebridge, (2) keep your plugins updated.

This version still bothers me a little, because even though node.js is updated, it is still 1 minor version behind the latest node.js version (v22.13.0) in the official docker image, so it shows an available update in the UI. IMO this is still much better and more useful for updated plugins since if the add-on restarts the minimum node.js version is v22.12.0, and not 18.whatever.

I posted detailed instructions on how to move from Davide to mine in my readme file. If you follow them you will not lose device or connections (at least I did not).

Add my repo to the add-on store to install it.

I just want to thank @davide125 for the excellent base I have used forever and understand why he would no longer maintain this project. No worries!

I hope this helps some of you.

[ifeign]

@iSteve-O you are a gentleman and a scholar

[davide125]

Thanks @iSteve-O, much appreciated. At some point I still want to pick this back up and get it sorted out, unfortunately the development environment for addons is a pain to work with, and I don't have any usable system setup for it at the moment.

[ifeign]

@davide125 all of us here appreciate your work in creating this in the first place!

[Lumute]

Wow, thanks guys! This add-on is really useful.

After wasting years fighting with the problems with all the different Govee integrations and add-ons, I finally have a solution that works well for all my devices and it's stable. Yay!