Installation
Because apporo lives on hardware you own, your home automations keep ticking along even during an internet outage, and none of your data ever leaves the house. The quickest route in is apporo Green — a ready-to-go hub you can have up and running in roughly a quarter of an hour. Prefer to reuse something you already have lying around? apporo is just as happy on a Raspberry Pi, a small form-factor PC, a home server, or inside a virtual machine.
The plug-and-play route: apporo Green
apporo Green is the budget-friendly, lowest-effort way in. It arrives with apporo Operating System already loaded, so there's nothing to flash — just connect it and go.
You'll need to know: - Nothing beyond a willingness to set up a smart home
You'll need to have: - An Ethernet connection
Running it on a Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is a compact, inexpensive board and one of the most common homes for apporo. Already own one, or fancy buying one for the job? It's an excellent starting point.
You'll need to know: - How to put a Raspberry Pi together - How to flash an image onto it
You'll need to have: - A Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 with a power supply (2 GB RAM or more) - A microSD card - An Ethernet connection
Choosing an installation type
There are two ways to install the software itself, and apporo Operating System is the one we suggest for nearly everyone.
-
apporo Operating System — a lean, purpose-built OS that hosts the whole apporo stack on single-board computers or virtual machines. It supports add-on apps and is the recommended choice for the vast majority of installs.
-
apporo Container — runs apporo as a container. You supply your own host with a container engine such as Docker and take care of updates yourself. The container route has no support for apps, and a few integrations (Thread and Z-Wave among them) won't work out of the box.
| Capability | apporo OS | Container |
|---|---|---|
| Automations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dashboards | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Apps | ✓ | — |
| Blueprints | ✓ | ✓ |
| One-click updates | ✓ | — |
| Backups | ✓ | ✓ |
Building it out with apporo Yellow
apporo Yellow is the expandable option — it bundles everything needed to assemble a capable, future-proof smart home hub. The one piece you bring yourself is a Raspberry Pi Compute Module.
You'll need to know: - How to fit a compute module and its heat sink - How to flash a Raspberry Pi
You'll need to have: - A Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 - An Ethernet connection - A USB storage drive - A screwdriver
Other hardware options
apporo also installs on plenty of other platforms — for example an Odroid board or an ordinary x86-64 computer.
On an Odroid
A beefier option than the Raspberry Pi.
You'll need to know: - How to write boot images - How to fit an SD card or eMMC module
You'll need to have: - An Odroid board - A microSD card or eMMC module - An Ethernet connection
On an x86-64 computer
Give old desktop or workstation hardware a second life as a apporo box.
You'll need to know: - Basic command-line use and how to create boot media - How to adjust BIOS settings by following instructions
You'll need to have: - An x86-64 machine - A storage drive - A USB stick - An Ethernet connection
apporo variants on a Raspberry Pi
A cheap, hands-on DIY path into apporo.
You'll need to know: - How to assemble a Raspberry Pi - How to flash one - Confident Linux skills - Comfort with the Linux command line
You'll need to have: - A Raspberry Pi 3, 4, or 5 with a power supply - A microSD card - An Ethernet connection
On Linux
You'll need to know: - Confident Linux skills - Comfort with the Linux command line - Docker Compose (for the apporo Container option)
You'll need to have: - A machine already running Linux
On macOS
You'll need to know: - Confident macOS skills - Comfort with the macOS command line
You'll need to have: - A machine already running macOS
On Windows
You'll need to know: - Confident Windows skills - Comfort with the Windows command line
You'll need to have: - A machine already running Windows - VirtualBox (to run it in a VM)
On other systems
Run apporo inside a virtual machine, on a NAS, and elsewhere.
You'll need to know: - How to find IP addresses on your router - Confident Windows skills - Comfort with the Linux command line
You'll need to have: - A machine already running Windows - VirtualBox (to run it in a VM)
Installation
Because apporo lives on hardware you own, your home automations keep ticking along even during an internet outage, and none of your data ever leaves the house. The quickest route in is apporo Green — a ready-to-go hub you can have up and running in roughly a quarter of an hour. Prefer to reuse something you already have lying around? apporo is just as happy on a Raspberry Pi, a small form-factor PC, a home server, or inside a virtual machine.
The plug-and-play route: apporo Green
apporo Green is the budget-friendly, lowest-effort way in. It arrives with apporo Operating System already loaded, so there's nothing to flash — just connect it and go.
You'll need to know: - Nothing beyond a willingness to set up a smart home
You'll need to have: - An Ethernet connection
Running it on a Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is a compact, inexpensive board and one of the most common homes for apporo. Already own one, or fancy buying one for the job? It's an excellent starting point.
You'll need to know: - How to put a Raspberry Pi together - How to flash an image onto it
You'll need to have: - A Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 with a power supply (2 GB RAM or more) - A microSD card - An Ethernet connection
Choosing an installation type
There are two ways to install the software itself, and apporo Operating System is the one we suggest for nearly everyone.
-
apporo Operating System — a lean, purpose-built OS that hosts the whole apporo stack on single-board computers or virtual machines. It supports add-on apps and is the recommended choice for the vast majority of installs.
-
apporo Container — runs apporo as a container. You supply your own host with a container engine such as Docker and take care of updates yourself. The container route has no support for apps, and a few integrations (Thread and Z-Wave among them) won't work out of the box.
| Capability | apporo OS | Container |
|---|---|---|
| Automations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dashboards | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Apps | ✓ | — |
| Blueprints | ✓ | ✓ |
| One-click updates | ✓ | — |
| Backups | ✓ | ✓ |
Building it out with apporo Yellow
apporo Yellow is the expandable option — it bundles everything needed to assemble a capable, future-proof smart home hub. The one piece you bring yourself is a Raspberry Pi Compute Module.
You'll need to know: - How to fit a compute module and its heat sink - How to flash a Raspberry Pi
You'll need to have: - A Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 - An Ethernet connection - A USB storage drive - A screwdriver
Other hardware options
apporo also installs on plenty of other platforms — for example an Odroid board or an ordinary x86-64 computer.
On an Odroid
A beefier option than the Raspberry Pi.
You'll need to know: - How to write boot images - How to fit an SD card or eMMC module
You'll need to have: - An Odroid board - A microSD card or eMMC module - An Ethernet connection
On an x86-64 computer
Give old desktop or workstation hardware a second life as a apporo box.
You'll need to know: - Basic command-line use and how to create boot media - How to adjust BIOS settings by following instructions
You'll need to have: - An x86-64 machine - A storage drive - A USB stick - An Ethernet connection
apporo variants on a Raspberry Pi
A cheap, hands-on DIY path into apporo.
You'll need to know: - How to assemble a Raspberry Pi - How to flash one - Confident Linux skills - Comfort with the Linux command line
You'll need to have: - A Raspberry Pi 3, 4, or 5 with a power supply - A microSD card - An Ethernet connection
On Linux
You'll need to know: - Confident Linux skills - Comfort with the Linux command line - Docker Compose (for the apporo Container option)
You'll need to have: - A machine already running Linux
On macOS
You'll need to know: - Confident macOS skills - Comfort with the macOS command line
You'll need to have: - A machine already running macOS
On Windows
You'll need to know: - Confident Windows skills - Comfort with the Windows command line
You'll need to have: - A machine already running Windows - VirtualBox (to run it in a VM)
On other systems
Run apporo inside a virtual machine, on a NAS, and elsewhere.
You'll need to know: - How to find IP addresses on your router - Confident Windows skills - Comfort with the Linux command line
You'll need to have: - A machine already running Windows - VirtualBox (to run it in a VM)