CoreBox: A Faster, More Reliable Way to Start Your HA over iHost

iHost Open Source Project HA over iHost
, ,
1

We’re excited to announce a new firmware version for HA over iHost — CoreBox.

What is CoreBox?

CoreBox is a new HA over iHost image designed for rapid setup, featuring the latest HA Core version (2025.05.03) pre-intergrated.

With CoreBox, you no longer need to wait during initial installation for the device to download HA Core from GitHub. Instead, you can directly boot from the built-in HA Core version, achieving startup within 3 minutes or even faster. CoreBox removes reliance on internet connectivity, allowing easy setup even in offline environments. You can still update to newer HA Core versions from within the system once it’s running.

Check this Video:

Why CoreBox?

We’ve been listening closely to your feedback.
Many users reported that the original installation process of HA over iHost often failed due to poor or unstable internet, especially during the initial HA Core download. This not only caused frustration but also discouraged many first-time users from continuing.

Even with our online support, troubleshooting network issues and walking through the installation process often took longer than expected — for both users and our team.

So we built CoreBox — a solution designed from the user’s perspective.

With CoreBox, you get:
:white_check_mark: A quick and reliable setup experience
:white_check_mark: No more delays or failed installations due to network issues
:white_check_mark: Confidence that your Home Assistant will run smoothly — anytime, anywhere

Can I update the built-in HA Core?

Yes!
Once HA boots up with the built-in version (2025.5.3), Home Assistant will detect if a newer version is available.
You can update HA Core as usual from the Settings > System > Updates page — just like a normal installation.

Installation Guide

image
image969×737 45.7 KB

Note: Please make sure to extract the .xz archive before flashing the image to your SD card.

Try CoreBox today and experience a smoother, faster, and more reliable Home Assistant setup on iHost!

Let us know your feedback — as always, we’re building this together with the community. :raising_hands:

3 Likes
3

Sounds exciting. I haven’t had the original 32-bit iHost for many months now. If things had gone the way they are now from the start, I’d probably be happily tinkering with it already. But for now, my RPI with HA onboard, teamed up with ZBBridge-U, is holding down the fort like a scrappy underdog. When you prepare a REFINED 64-bit version of iHost, I’ll gladly revisit the topic. Until then, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. May the bugs be ever in your favor! Good luck! :rocket:

2 Likes
4

From the README:

Required Hardware

  • An (Application Class 2) (A2) card, with a minimum capacity of 32GB, is recommended for better performance, especially on small read&write operations. We would suggest using a TF card from SanDisk, Kingston, or Samsung. We have been internally using these brand cards for testing.

What is the speed limit (MB/s - IOPS) of the hardware (iHost)?
Lexar Silver Plus seems even better than those reccommended ones

5

What matters most isn’t the speed, but the fact that it’s Class A.

6

Class A1:
Minimum Random Read: 1500 IOPS
Minimum Random Write: 500 IOPS

Class A2:
Minimum Random Read: 4000 IOPS
Minimum Random Write: 2000 IOPS

The question of the hardware’s limits remains open

7

Buy an A2 class card. It’s a safer investment by all means. I used to have one with iHost and it worked very well.

8

I’m not saying it doens’t work.
The question is only about the hardware limit.

9

The SD/MMC Interface provided by iHost SoC RV1126/RV1109, aka TF card slot, is compatible with SD3.0, MMC ver4.51 specification, which means the theoretical speed is:

  • Sequential read thruput is 140MB/s
  • Sequential write thruput is 50MB/s
  • Random read speed is 7000 IO/s
  • Random write speed is 2000 IO/s

We tested it in our lab and the real world performance is above 80%.

RV1126/1109 SDMMC Interface
RV1126/1109 SDMMC Interface1346×602 59.7 KB

As @jam3 has pointed out, Class 1 (A1) TF card works, but if you are going to buy new ones instead of using existing ones, buy Class 2 (A2) TF card is future-proof.

1 Like
10

Fantastic. Thanks for the answer.
I really appreciated it.