/ and /root are Read-Only - Cannot create .cshrc for aliases or history

[fireheadman]

Describe the issue you are experiencing

I just completed the migration to the Home Assistant OS since I was getting the warning message it would not be supported on Debian soon.

I like being able to recall history for commands performed and set aliases
.... both of these would go into the .cshrc file, however I cannot seem to create the file as I have noticed / and /root are read only out the gate on new system.

Please advise if this is by design or perhaps I am experiencing a system/os issue preventing the filesystem from allowing writes to this directories

# mount | grep -w '/'
/dev/sda3 on / type erofs (ro,relatime,user_xattr,acl,cache_strategy=readaround)

What operating system image do you use?

generic-x86-64 (Generic UEFI capable x86-64 systems)

What version of Home Assistant Operating System is installed?

6.12.23-haos

Did the problem occur after upgrading the Operating System?

Yes

Hardware details

Hardware is 2012 Mac Mini
Drive: Samsung Evo 850 (250GB)
Network: Ethernet connection w/usb2ethernet on 2nd IoT network connection
Zwave/Zigbee stick (USB)

Steps to reproduce the issue

mount | grep -w '/'

/dev/sda3 on / type erofs (ro,relatime,user_xattr,acl,cache_strategy=readaround)

pwd

/root

touch .cshrc

touch: .cshrc: Read-only file system
...

Anything in the Supervisor logs that might be useful for us?

nothing present about this issue in the logs

Anything in the Host logs that might be useful for us?

nothing present about this issue in the logs

System information

System Information

version	core-2025.6.1
installation_type	Home Assistant OS
dev	false
hassio	true
docker	true
user	root
virtualenv	false
python_version	3.13.3
os_name	Linux
os_version	6.12.23-haos
arch	x86_64
timezone	America/Denver
config_dir	/config

Home Assistant Community Store

GitHub API	ok
GitHub Content	ok
GitHub Web	ok
HACS Data	ok
GitHub API Calls Remaining	5000
Installed Version	2.0.5
Stage	running
Available Repositories	2022
Downloaded Repositories	46

AccuWeather

can_reach_server	ok
remaining_requests	30

Home Assistant Cloud

logged_in	false
can_reach_cert_server	ok
can_reach_cloud_auth	ok
can_reach_cloud	ok

Home Assistant Supervisor

host_os	Home Assistant OS 15.2
update_channel	stable
supervisor_version	supervisor-2025.05.5
agent_version	1.7.2
docker_version	28.0.4
disk_total	228.5 GB
disk_used	15.4 GB
healthy	true
supported	true
host_connectivity	true
supervisor_connectivity	true
ntp_synchronized	true
virtualization
board	generic-x86-64
supervisor_api	ok
version_api	ok
installed_addons	Matter Server (8.0.0), Mosquitto broker (6.5.1), Zigbee2MQTT Edge (edge), ESPHome Device Builder (2025.5.2), Zigbee2MQTT Edge (edge), Home Assistant Google Drive Backup (0.112.1), Govee to MQTT Bridge (2025.04.13-17d43d72), phpMyAdmin (0.11.1), TasmoBackup (1.06.09), Music Assistant Server (2.5.4), MariaDB (2.7.2), Z-Wave JS UI (4.4.0), Zigbee2MQTT (2.4.0-1)

keymaster

zwave_integration	zwave_js
network_status	on

Dashboards

dashboards	7
resources	34
views	33
mode	storage

Network Configuration

adapters	lo (disabled), enp3s0f0 (enabled, default, auto), enp0s20u4 (enabled), hassio (disabled), docker0 (disabled), veth504e0ed (disabled), veth5f69435 (disabled), veth28b8f8a (disabled), vethac901be (disabled), veth69f0384 (disabled), veth21cae00 (disabled), veth1a8321d (disabled), veth9413a15 (disabled), veth5fbc217 (disabled), veth67a1408 (disabled), vethedcd2e6 (disabled), veth498dfdd (disabled), veth9f2b5d9 (disabled), vethcd727fd (disabled), vethae8127d (disabled)
ipv4_addresses	lo (127.0.0.1/8), enp3s0f0 (192.168.1.71/24), enp0s20u4 (192.168.4.71/24), hassio (172.30.32.1/23), docker0 (172.30.232.1/23), veth504e0ed (), veth5f69435 (), veth28b8f8a (), vethac901be (), veth69f0384 (), veth21cae00 (), veth1a8321d (), veth9413a15 (), veth5fbc217 (), veth67a1408 (), vethedcd2e6 (), veth498dfdd (), veth9f2b5d9 (), vethcd727fd (), vethae8127d ()
ipv6_addresses	lo (::1/128), enp3s0f0 (fe80::1a1a:6fba:68d9:3134/64), enp0s20u4 (fe80::b0cd:3e96:f9f3:a32/64), hassio (fe80::1455:f3ff:fee3:9542/64), docker0 (fe80::742c:91ff:feda:5c72/64), veth504e0ed (fe80::6884:acff:fedd:5221/64), veth5f69435 (fe80::28a1:69ff:fe3c:f5e9/64), veth28b8f8a (fe80::d8f2:38ff:fee6:84a9/64), vethac901be (fe80::7847:abff:fe88:98de/64), veth69f0384 (fe80::a43d:b5ff:febd:330a/64), veth21cae00 (fe80::e84b:7bff:fe5e:4da0/64), veth1a8321d (fe80::c83d:1eff:feff:c4ab/64), veth9413a15 (fe80::e80a:55ff:fe63:b369/64), veth5fbc217 (fe80::acaf:45ff:fe78:a917/64), veth67a1408 (fe80::a0a4:d4ff:febb:73bd/64), vethedcd2e6 (fe80::d8d7:36ff:fee1:5c5a/64), veth498dfdd (fe80::b0a8:ccff:fe5a:4854/64), veth9f2b5d9 (fe80::36:e2ff:febe:537c/64), vethcd727fd (fe80::4865:91ff:feb7:7628/64), vethae8127d (fe80::401a:ccff:fe75:a97f/64)
announce_addresses	192.168.1.71, fe80::1a1a:6fba:68d9:3134, 192.168.4.71, fe80::b0cd:3e96:f9f3:a32

Recorder

oldest_recorder_run	June 3, 2025 at 5:07 AM
current_recorder_run	June 13, 2025 at 11:00 PM
estimated_db_size	1768.77 MiB
database_engine	mysql
database_version	10.11.6

Additional information

No response

[fireheadman]

Been doing more searches on this... can't seem to locate any formal documenation that supports HAOS being RO.
If this is by design, is there an alternative way/method to create a non-root user that could support aliases and history?

[sairon]

Notice the type erofs in the mount output for the root filesystem entry, which is actually a read-only filesystem. So yes, that's largely by design.

Writability to certain parts of the FS is generally achieved through bind-mounts of the respective files/folders in the overlay partition (e.g. here for the /etc/hostname). However, most of the components are designed to write in the /mnt/data partition. For some more details see the docs about partitioning in HAOS.

For your use-case, it's not something I'd consider to implement (i.e. adding more bind mounts) - SSH access to the host system is something that you should generally only need for debugging purposes (although you could argue that having history or aliases there could be sometimes useful too, but...).

Approach of HAOS for extensibility is through add-ons and plugins, which are Docker containers. If you want more hackable system, your option is either to run Home Assistant in a container in a distribution of your choice, or run it in a VM (native Qemu/KVM virtualization's overhead isn't that big on decent hardware). Maybe you'll be able to achieve your goals by running the extra software as add-ons - like I said, just think of them as Docker containers orchestrated by the Supervisor.

One last thing to note - adding aliases to ~/.cshrc would have no effect, as it's AFAIK not sourced by the login shell used in HAOS, which is Busybox's ash.

[fireheadman]

Thanks for the reply.... I'll have to look into EROFS some more (will be a nice challenge). I still want to use aliases and mostly history to help track every command performed. history is also nice to have in the event you need to audit for potential malicious activity.