Home Assistant OS 18 Simplifies Smart Home Setup and Speeds Up Installation

The Home Assistant team has unveiled Home Assistant OS 18.0—a major update to the operating system powering the popular smart home automation platform. The focus is on simplifying installation and improving stability across devices, including Raspberry Pi, mini-PCs, and virtual machines.

This release features an updated Linux kernel to version 6.18 LTS, ensuring compatibility with modern hardware and enhanced security. Key components have also been refreshed: Docker to 29.5.3, containerd to 2.2.4, and Buildroot to 2025.02.14. Installation images are now more compact, and the writing process to storage media is faster. Upon first launch, the system automatically utilizes all available disk space without manual configuration.

Virtual machine users benefit from simplified initial setup, as images now include 32GB of pre-allocated storage, eliminating the need for manual disk expansion. Memory management has also improved: the default swap file size is now capped between 1GB and 4GB, optimizing performance across devices with varying RAM capacities.

Raspberry Pi owners can update firmware directly from Home Assistant OS via the command line. Future updates, including Home Assistant Core 2026.7, will integrate these updates into the user interface. However, Raspberry Pi 5 users should note that the new OS requires a bootloader dated no earlier than February 12, 2025, to avoid potential boot freezes.

The team has also streamlined the initial setup process: during the first boot, a progress bar now displays the Home Assistant Core installation status, and devices become discoverable by mobile apps sooner. The update is available for download now, and the team urges all users to upgrade promptly.