Install Home Assistant OS on a mini PC or in Proxmox (and pass the Zigbee stick through)

A mini PC turns Home Assistant from “that Raspberry Pi in the cupboard” into a proper little server: an SSD for history and backups, and enough headroom for add-ons. You have two good ways to install it on one box, plus a shortcut if you’d rather not install anything.

Put Home Assistant OS straight onto a Beelink EQ14 when the box will only run Home Assistant. Run it as a Proxmox VM on the same EQ14 when you want VM snapshots and room for other services. Buy Home Assistant Green when you want to plug in, open a browser and start. Add a SONOFF Dongle Plus MG24 for Zigbee on any of them.

Specs come from the makers; steps follow the Home Assistant and Proxmox docs.

The parts, picked by job

Beelink EQ14 is the box for both installs. Beelink lists a four-core Intel N150, a DDR4 SO-DIMM slot (16 GB in this configuration, 16 GB maximum), two M.2 2280 SSD slots and two 2.5G Ethernet ports. The power supply is built in, so one cord replaces the usual power brick. Two network ports are handy for Proxmox later. Comparing other boxes? See the mini PC guide.

Home Assistant Green is the no-install pick. Green ships with Home Assistant OS on 32 GB of eMMC, a 1.8 GHz quad-core Arm CPU, 4 GB of RAM, Gigabit Ethernet and two USB 2.0 ports. It sips about 1.7 W idle and about 3 W under load. Plug in power and Ethernet, open a browser, done.

SONOFF Dongle Plus MG24 adds the Zigbee radio. Neither box includes Zigbee. The Dongle Plus MG24 is a Zigbee USB coordinator built on the EFR32MG24 chip, and it can be reflashed later as a Thread (OpenThread RCP) radio. It comes with a 1 m USB extension cable. Use it. More options live in the coordinator guide.

Three routes compared

	Bare metal on EQ14	Proxmox VM on EQ14	Home Assistant Green
What you need	EQ14, a USB stick, keyboard and monitor for setup	EQ14 already running Proxmox VE	Just the Green
Image	Generic x86-64	KVM/Proxmox .qcow2	Preinstalled
Firmware setting	UEFI on, Secure Boot off	OVMF (UEFI) VM, no pre-enrolled keys	Nothing
Zigbee stick	Plug in on the extension	Plug in, pass it through to the VM	Plug in on the extension
Rollback	HA backups	HA backups plus VM snapshots	HA backups
Best for	A dedicated hub	Hub plus other homelab services	The quickest start

Prefer a Raspberry Pi 5? It’s the low-power, small-footprint route, with a GPIO header for HATs and two USB 2.0 ports that suit a Zigbee stick. Pair the Pi 5 with the official 27W supply, the Active Cooler and an M.2 HAT+ with a 2230 NVMe drive instead of an SD card. Choose the mini PC instead when you want Proxmox, more RAM or heavy apps. The Raspberry Pi 5 NVMe guide has the full parts list and install steps.

All three run the full Home Assistant OS, with apps (add-ons) and one-click backups. Not sure whether your box should host anything else? The Proxmox vs bare metal guide helps you choose.

Route A: Home Assistant OS straight onto the EQ14

The official Generic x86-64 guide writes Home Assistant OS onto the internal SSD from a live Ubuntu session. This wipes the preinstalled Windows.

1. Set the BIOS. Connect a keyboard and monitor, enter the BIOS during boot, make sure UEFI boot mode is enabled and disable Secure Boot. Save and exit.
2. Boot Ubuntu from a USB stick. Write an Ubuntu Desktop image to a USB stick on another computer, boot the EQ14 from it and choose Try Ubuntu.
3. Write the image to the SSD. In the live session, download the Generic x86-64 image linked from the guide and write it to the EQ14’s internal SSD with Ubuntu’s Disks utility (Restore Disk Image) or Balena Etcher.
4. Boot and onboard. Shut down, remove the USB stick, connect Ethernet and power on. After a few minutes, open homeassistant.local:8123 from a computer on the same network and create your account.

Route B: Home Assistant OS as a Proxmox VM

Home Assistant publishes a ready-made KVM/Proxmox .qcow2 image on its alternative installation page, with a minimum of 2 GB RAM and 2 vCPUs. Give it 4 GB on a 16 GB EQ14 and you still have plenty left for other VMs.

1. Create the VM without a disk. In the Proxmox web UI, choose Create VM and note the VM ID. Under System, set BIOS to OVMF (UEFI), add an EFI disk and untick pre-enrolled keys, so Secure Boot stays off. Delete the default hard disk. Don’t start the VM yet.
2. Import the image. In the node shell, download the .qcow2.xz file, decompress it with unxz, and import it with Proxmox’s qm disk import:

   qm disk import 100 haos_ova-VERSION.qcow2 local-lvm

   Use your VM ID, the filename you downloaded and your storage name. In the VM’s Hardware tab, attach the new Unused Disk, then make it first under Options → Boot Order.
3. Pass the Zigbee stick through. Plug the dongle into the EQ14 on its extension cable. Run lsusb in the node shell and note the stick’s vendor:product ID, then add it under Hardware → Add → USB Device → Use USB Vendor/Device ID, or with qm set 100 -usb0 host=VENDOR:PRODUCT. The Proxmox USB guide covers both, plus mapping by port when two sticks share an ID.
4. Start fresh. If the VM was running, shut it down and start it again so the USB device attaches. Then open homeassistant.local:8123 and onboard.

Take a Proxmox snapshot before big HA updates. It’s the rollback button bare metal doesn’t have.

Add Zigbee the right way

Once you’re onboarded, Home Assistant should discover the dongle under Settings → Devices & services. Choose Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA) and create a new network.

Keep the stick away from USB 3. HA’s ZHA documentation names USB 3.x ports, devices and unshielded cables as 2.4 GHz noise sources. Use a USB 2.0 port where you have one, and put the stick on a shielded extension cable away from the PC, SSD enclosures and the router. If you ever enter the radio path by hand, use the /dev/serial/by-id/... path so it survives reboots.

First automation: a nudge before you update

A fresh install gets frequent updates. This automation leaves a notification in HA when a Core or OS update arrives, so you remember to back up (or snapshot) first. Update entities are on when an update is available.

alias: System - back up before updating
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id:
      - update.home_assistant_core_update
      - update.home_assistant_operating_system_update
    to: "on"
actions:
  - action: persistent_notification.create
    data:
      notification_id: update_ready
      title: Update ready
      message: >
        {{ trigger.to_state.name }} can go to
        {{ trigger.to_state.attributes.latest_version }}.
        Take a backup or Proxmox snapshot first.
mode: single

Check Settings → Devices & services → Entities for your exact update entity IDs and swap them in. A Proxmox VM runs Home Assistant OS too, so it has the same OS update entity.

Test it

1. Open Developer tools → States, pick update.home_assistant_core_update and set its state to on.
2. The Update ready card should appear under notifications.
3. The real state comes back at the next update check. Dismiss the card.

The short version: one box just for Home Assistant? Install it straight on the EQ14. Want snapshots and other VMs too? Run it in Proxmox on the same EQ14. Want zero setup? Home Assistant Green. Add the MG24 stick on its extension for Zigbee either way. Then head to the Home Assistant hub for your first devices.