v0.9.6-rc2

Recommended installation

Do not use adb install directly. It installs the APK but does not complete ha-paneld's permissions, startup, configuration, and verification.

From macOS, Linux, Git Bash, or WSL, run:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/maxlyth/ha-paneld/releases/download/v0.9.6-rc2/ha-paneld-installer-v0.9.6-rc2.sh | bash

The ha-paneld-v0.9.6-rc2-manual-setup-required.apk asset is for manual or on-device sideloading. After installing it, open ha-paneld and complete the on-panel setup.

Important changes — please read before upgrading

This release candidate is primarily about keeping panels reachable and making failures visible while they can still be recovered. It warns about storage, database and Android power conditions that could make a panel unreliable, stops failed configuration changes from masquerading as success, and improves dashboard, installer and hardware-sensor recovery. Testers should focus on upgrades, sleep and wake behaviour, log delivery and sensor continuity.

Added

• Panels now warn when storage or database problems could make them unreliable. The Dashboard, diagnostics and Home Assistant report available space, database growth and database health. Serious problems produce a persistent warning and cause fleet verification to fail with recovery guidance. This release only detects and reports problems; it never deletes data or performs automatic database maintenance.

• Panels can identify Android power settings that may make them unreachable after the screen switches off. A warning explains the risk and offers Repair power safety where ha-paneld can safely apply and verify the supported safeguards without rebooting. Where Android requires a manual change, the panel provides specific guidance and lets you hide that exact unchanged caution after acting on it; diagnostics and installer verification continue to report the underlying state.

• Remote Controls can now return a panel to its configured Dashboard. Dashboard navigation remains separate from Reload, so routine navigation does not unnecessarily rebuild the page. A remote Reload in Hardened security mode requires approval on the panel.

Changed

• Log shipping now works reliably with standard collectors and is easier to troubleshoot. You can choose syslog over TCP or UDP, or HTTP, test the destination from the panel before saving, and see a useful explanation when the collector cannot be reached. Hostnames with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are handled correctly, existing installations retain their transport behaviour, and UDP status is described honestly because delivery cannot be confirmed. Fresh installations default to TCP because a rejected connection can be reported instead of silently losing records. A dependency-free test receiver is included for end-to-end checks.

Fixed

• Failed settings changes no longer look successful or replace working configuration. A change becomes visible only after it has been written durably. If saving fails, the previous settings and their active behaviour remain in place, the request reports the failure, and a retry starts from the last known-good state.

• Automatic Home dashboard selection is predictable and only chooses a dashboard the signed-in user can access. A blank selection follows the user's default, then the Home Assistant system default, then the first available dashboard. Temporary Home Assistant failures are retried instead of opening an invented or inaccessible route.

• TPA10 temperature, humidity and proximity sensors recover correctly again. Climate readings remain active long enough to refresh, a trustworthy learned proximity model survives restart validation, and brief noise no longer makes the Home Assistant entity appear unavailable. A genuinely stalled or contradictory sensor still fails safely and enters bounded recovery.

• The installer can recover an app that Android has placed into its stopped state. It verifies that the normal launcher route actually restored panel health and uses a bounded fallback when it did not, rather than reporting success while the panel remains unavailable.

• Automatic-sleep activity updates no longer make the Configure page flash, collapse or jump. Presence-source and history refreshes update the affected content while preserving settled controls, chart position, focus and scroll state. Temporary Home Assistant registry or history failures retry without replacing useful information with a misleading broken state.

Upgrade notes

• Use the normal installer for an in-place update. No configuration reset or manual Home Assistant entity cleanup is expected.

• Existing installations retain their effective log-shipping transport: an explicit legacy syslog selection remains TCP, while an upgraded configuration that never stored a protocol continues using UDP. Fresh installations default to TCP. A scheme or port entered in Sink host, such as udp://collector or collector:1514, is now interpreted directly.

• A critical storage or database warning now makes installer and fleet verification stop. Preserve ha-paneld.db, restore storage headroom or correct the reported database or I/O problem, then rerun verification; RC2 does not delete or compact data automatically.

• A panel may show a new Power safety warning if Android cannot prove that it will remain reachable with the screen off. Review the guidance and use Repair power safety where offered; the repair does not reboot the panel. In Hardened security mode, remote repair, Reload and acknowledgement of a manual-only caution require physical approval on the panel.