How to fix Docker Home-Assistant [finish] process exit code 256

Problem:

Your Docker container running home-assistant always exits immediately after starting up, with the log being similar to this:

$ docker-compose up
Recreating homeassistant ... done
Attaching to homeassistant
homeassistant    | [s6-init] making user provided files available at /var/run/s6/etc...exited 0.
homeassistant    | [s6-init] ensuring user provided files have correct perms...exited 0.
homeassistant    | [fix-attrs.d] applying ownership & permissions fixes...
homeassistant    | [fix-attrs.d] done.
homeassistant    | [cont-init.d] executing container initialization scripts...
homeassistant    | [cont-init.d] done.
homeassistant    | [services.d] starting services
homeassistant    | [services.d] done.
homeassistant    | [finish] process exit code 256
homeassistant    | [finish] process received signal 15
homeassistant    | [cont-finish.d] executing container finish scripts...
homeassistant    | [cont-finish.d] done.
homeassistant    | [s6-finish] waiting for services.
homeassistant    | [s6-finish] sending all processes the TERM signal.
homeassistant    | [s6-finish] sending all processes the KILL signal and exiting.
homeassistant exited with code 0

Solution

You need to start the container with --privileged=true if using docker directly to start up the service, or use privileged: true if using docker-compose.

Here’s an example of a working docker-compose.yml file:

services:
  homeassistant:
    container_name: homeassistant
    restart: unless-stopped
    image: ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable
    network_mode: host
    privileged: true
    environment:
      - TZ=Europe/Berlin
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config