Matter Server Fails with exec /init: exec format error on Home Assistant Yellow (v1.3)

[GordonVanDyke]

Describe the issue you are experiencing

About a week ago Matter Server stopped working, I also happened to perform a network reboot and assign my HA a static IP. After these change (maybe coincidence) the Matter Server add-on on my Home Assistant Yellow (v1.3) stopped working and enters a crash loop with the error:
exec /init: exec format error
The issue persists even after:
1. Fully uninstalling and reinstalling the Matter Server add-on.
2. Manually removing the container and its data from the Supervisor’s directory.
3. Clearing Docker images and containers.
4. Disabling watchdog and start-on-boot for the add-on.
5. Ensuring Home Assistant OS, Core, and Supervisor are fully updated.

The add-on still crashes immediately after attempting to start, and new containers are created repeatedly in a crash loop. This behavior occurs despite following troubleshooting steps to clear residual files and configurations.

Worth noting that even with Start on boot and Watchdog off the Matter server still attempts to boot regardless the settings applied.

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

Which operating system are you running on?

Home Assistant Operating System

Which add-on are you reporting an issue with?

Matter Server

What is the version of the add-on?

7.0.0

Steps to reproduce the issue

1.	Use a Home Assistant Yellow (v1.3) with Home Assistant OS 2025.1.0.
2.	Enable the Matter Server add-on.
3.	Reboot the network or restart the host system and assign static IP for HA.
4.	Attempt to start the Matter Server add-on.

System Health information

System Information

version	core-2025.1.0
installation_type	Home Assistant OS
dev	false
hassio	true
docker	true
user	root
virtualenv	false
python_version	3.13.1
os_name	Linux
os_version	6.6.62-haos-raspi
arch	aarch64
timezone	Europe/Stockholm
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	2.0.2
Stage	running
Available Repositories	1496
Downloaded Repositories	18

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 14.1
update_channel	stable
supervisor_version	supervisor-2024.12.3
agent_version	1.6.0
docker_version	27.2.0
disk_total	13.6 GB
disk_used	8.9 GB
healthy	true
supported	true
host_connectivity	true
supervisor_connectivity	true
ntp_synchronized	true
virtualization
board	yellow
supervisor_api	ok
version_api	ok
installed_addons	CEC Scanner (3.0), ESPHome Device Builder (2024.12.2), Spotify Connect (0.13.0), TasmoAdmin (0.31.2), Git pull (7.14.1), Zigbee2MQTT (2.0.0-2), Mosquitto broker (6.4.1), MQTT Explorer (browser-1.0.3), Advanced SSH & Web Terminal (20.0.0), File editor (5.8.0), Matter Server (7.0.0)

Dashboards

dashboards	2
resources	6
views	3
mode	storage

Recorder

oldest_recorder_run	December 25, 2024 at 21:44
current_recorder_run	January 6, 2025 at 22:04
estimated_db_size	436.75 MiB
database_engine	sqlite
database_version	3.47.1

Sonoff

version	3.8.1 (ffa7e22)
cloud_online	20 / 22
local_online	2 / 4

Spotify

api_endpoint_reachable	ok

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

Logger: homeassistant.components.matter
Source: components/hassio/addon_manager.py:410
integration: Matter (BETA) (documentation, issues)
First occurred: 21:42:55 (1 occurrences)
Last logged: 21:42:55

Failed to start the Matter Server add-on: Another job is running for job group addon_core_matter_server

Logger: homeassistant.components.matter
Source: components/hassio/addon_manager.py:410
integration: Matter (BETA) (documentation, issues)
First occurred: January 6, 2025 at 22:10:53 (3 occurrences)
Last logged: January 6, 2025 at 22:22:55

Failed to set the Matter Server add-on options: not a valid value for dictionary value @ data['options']. Got {}

Anything in the add-on logs that might be useful for us?

docker logs <container_id>
<Include logs showing the `exec /init: exec format error` message>

Additional information

Troubleshooting Steps Taken
• Uninstalled and reinstalled the Matter Server add-on.
• Cleared residual add-on data (rm -rf /mnt/data/supervisor/addons/data/core_matter_server).
• Removed all Docker containers and images related to the Matter Server.
• Disabled start-on-boot and watchdog features for the add-on.
• Updated Home Assistant OS, Core, and Supervisor to their latest versions.
• Verified system architecture as aarch64 using uname -m and Docker image inspection.

[agners]

Worth noting that even with Start on boot and Watchdog off the Matter server still attempts to boot regardless the settings applied.

That is most likely the Matter integration in Core starting the container from Core side. You'd have to remove or disable the Matter integration to prevent that.

exec /init: exec format error

The issue does sound like some type of corruption.

3. Clearing Docker images and containers.

I would expect that this clears any remains of the init file 🤔 Did you remove the container as well as blow away all tags of that particular container image? Maybe also run a docker image prune afterwards.

Worst case, a reinstall will be necessary 😢

FWIW, the add-on does work here on a Yellow, so the container image server side seems to be correct.

[GordonVanDyke]

Appreciate your reply and feedback. I’ve followed the suggestions provided, but the issue persists. Here’s what I’ve done and the results so far:

1. Disabled the Matter Integration to prevent automatic container creation and successfully removed all related containers, images, and configurations from my system.
2. Reinstalled the Matter Server Add-on after confirming the system was clean, but the error exec /init: exec format error persists.
3. Manually Debugged the Image:
   • Verified that the system architecture is aarch64 (uname -m output: aarch64).
   • Checked the Docker image architecture, which is also arm64 (docker inspect confirms "Architecture": "arm64").
   • Ran /init manually inside the container using:
     docker run --rm -it homeassistant/aarch64-addon-matter-server:7.0.0 /init
     This produces the same error: exec /init: exec format error.
4. Pulled a Fresh Image:
   • Removed and re-downloaded the Docker image using docker rmi and docker pull.
   • Retested /init, and the error persists.
5. Image Digest:
   The current image digest pulled is:
   sha256:ffaf3170de562ed3bc12437aed10212e171258a4de295b83ea5c19b750d8abce
6. Current Environment Details:
   • Device: Home Assistant Yellow (v1.3)
   • OS Version: Home Assistant OS 14.1
   • Core Version: 2025.1.3
   • Supervisor Version: Latest
   • Matter Server Add-on Version: 7.0.0

It appears the /init binary in the container is either corrupted or incompatible in some way, despite matching architectures. Given that others have reported it working on the Yellow, this may be specific to my environment or the image pulled in my region but I haven’t changed or doing anything that I’m aware of that would cause such a deep rooted issue. I’m very novice which is why I got a HA Yellow, despite that I still seem to have encounter very complex issues.

Do you have any suggestions for further debugging, or could this indicate an issue with the specific image digest? I’m happy to provide more logs or details as needed.