How to enable EFI on droplets?

Heya,

By default Droplets use BIOS firmware and can’t be switched to EFI. All you are left are workarounds such as using Docker to spin up a docker container.

Hey,

Enabling EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) on DigitalOcean Droplets can be a bit tricky since, by default, Droplets use BIOS firmware. Unfortunately, DigitalOcean doesn’t provide a straightforward way to switch from BIOS to EFI on their standard Droplets.

Home Assistant OS (HAOS) is designed to boot using UEFI firmware. EFI provides modern boot features that HAOS relies on, and without it, HAOS won’t boot properly.

However, what you could do is to install Home Assistant Container instead using Docker:

• Install Docker:

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install docker.io
  sudo systemctl start docker
  sudo systemctl enable docker
  

  Or use the 1-Click installation: https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/docker

• Run Home Assistant Container:

  As per the instructions here start your container:

  sudo docker run -d --name homeassistant --restart=unless-stopped \
    -e TZ=YOUR_TIME_ZONE \
    -v /home/your_user/homeassistant:/config \
    --network=host \
    ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable
  

  Replace YOUR_TIME_ZONE with your actual time zone (e.g., America/New_York) and adjust the volume path as needed.

• Access Home Assistant:

  Navigate to http://your_droplet_ip:8123 to access the Home Assistant web interface.

While DigitalOcean doesn’t natively support enabling EFI on Droplets, using the Docker container method is a viable workaround to get Home Assistant up and running.

Let me know if you need any more help or clarification!

- Bobby