Home Assistant is fantastic on its own, but with one open-source project and about 10 minutes, you can bring the convenience of the Home Assistant app right to your Linux desktop.What does Home Assistant do? Home Assistant is a popular self-hosted solution for smart home enthusiasts that are looking for a privacy-focused way to manage their smart appliances.Home Assistant can control: Lights Smart switches Automatic blinds Door locks Thermostats And plenty of other more niche devices, like a Litter Robot.
It can also take sensor input from any number of smart devices, like thermometers, air quality sensors, photosensors, and almost anything else you can think of.It even allows you to build automations that trigger smart devices in your home based on input from the sensors.Fortunately, it is also pretty easy to run.
You can easily control dozens of devices with a Raspberry Pi 4 or an old PC you rescued from a dumpster.Smart homes ignore PCs, Plasma Home Assistant fixes that For the most part, smart home software really isn't aimed at desktops.Most of the default applications are either exclusively available for mobile devices, or their PC OS versions are very lacking.
Home Assistant does offer a nice web portal you can use, but that isn't quite as convenient as I'd like.That is where an open-source project, Plasma Home Assistant, comes in.Plasma Home Assistant brings Home Assistant widgets to your Plasma desktop KDE Plasma is a popular desktop environment for Linux with extremely flexible support for widgets.
Plasma Home Assistant lets you control any of the smart devices connected to your Home Assistant server directly from your desktop, just like you might click an icon on an app.Most of the lights in my office space are smart, and I've frequently found myself wishing that I could adjust the lighting without having to get up to hit a switch, get out my phone to open an app, or open up the HA website, all of which can easily break my train of thought.So, I used the GitHub project to pin a few widgets to my desktop that let me toggle the lights on or off with the click of a button.
Setting up Home Assistant widgets on a Plasma desktop To get Home Assistant widgets running on your PC, the first thing you need to do is download and install the dependencies.The first one is the Qt WebSocket package.I'm running Kubuntu, so the command I needed was: sudo apt install qml6-module-qtwebsockets If you're running a different distro, you'll need to use whichever command is appropriate for that distro.
Once the package has been installed, restart the Plasma desktop environment to ensure that it takes effect.You can just restart your PC, or you can run the following command in the terminal instead: systemctl --user restart plasma-plasmashell With that done, now you need to download the appropriate files from GitHub or the KDE Store.Now, right-click your desktop and select "Enter Edit Mode," then click "Add or Manage Widgets" in the upper left corner.
Click the button that says "Get New," then select "Install Widget from Local File." Navigate to wherever you saved your plasmoid file and select it.With that done, you should see a new Home Assistant widget option.When you first add it, it'll probably be near the top.
After a restart, it'll move down to its alphabetical position.Subscribe for Practical Home Assistant + Linux Tips Sign up for the newsletter to get clear, hands-on guides and smart-home coverage focused on Home Assistant and Linux desktop integrations.Find practical setup tips, widget ideas, and troubleshooting guidance for your smart-home projects.
Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.You can unsubscribe anytime.Before you can use the widget, it actually needs something to connect to.
Log into your Home Assistant server's web interface.By default, you can access that by entering http://homeassistant.local:8123 in your browser.Once there, click on your username in the bottom left, then navigate to the Security tab.
At the bottom, click "Create Token" under Long-Lived Tokens.Once you have the token, head back over to the Home Assistant widget and click "Configure." You need to add your Home Assistant URL (http://homeassistant.local:8123 by default) and your long-term token.With that done, go to the Items tab and click "Add." From there, you'll be able to select any of the devices you have configured with Home Assistant.
You can name the button, select an appearance, and change the behavior.I have everything I use set to toggle, but you could build a dedicated on or off switch if that suits your needs better.Home Assistant is already exceptionally convenient if you're into smart home technology, and the ability to integrate it into your desktop only makes things even better.
It certainly beats fumbling around for my phone whenever I need to turn off a light.Raspberry Pi 5 Brand Raspberry Pi Storage 8GB It's only recommended for tech-savvy users, but the Raspberry Pi 5 is a tinkerer's dream.Cheap, highly customizable, and with great onboard specs, it's a solid base for your next mini PC.
$80 at Spark Fun $93 at Amazon $80 at CanaKit Expand Collapse
Read More
