Control Rooted LG WebOS TV Energy Saving via Home Assistant (SSH)

webos-has-shell.md

Control Rooted LG WebOS TV Energy Saving via Home Assistant (SSH)

This guide explains how to control the Energy Saving modes (Minimum, Medium, Maximum, Screen Off) of a rooted LG WebOS TV using Home Assistant shell_commands.

The Problem

You want to change energy saving settings programmatically (e.g., turn the screen off while keeping audio running) using luna-send commands over SSH.

1. Manual Execution Works: Running the SSH command manually in the Home Assistant terminal works perfectly:

   ssh root@192.168.1.X "luna-send -n 1 -f 'luna://com.webos.settingsservice/setSystemSettings' '{\"category\":\"picture\",\"settings\":{\"energySaving\":\"screen_off\",\"energySavingModified\":\"true\"}}'"

2. Home Assistant Automation Fails: When running the exact same command via a Home Assistant shell_command, nothing happens on the TV.
   • The exit code is often 0 (Success).
   • Debug logs show the connection is established.
   • However: The TV returns no response (no JSON output), and the setting does not change.

The Cause

Home Assistant executes shell commands in a non-interactive environment. No TTY: The luna-send service on WebOS often requires a pseudo-terminal (TTY) to function correctly. Without it, the process starts but hangs or exits silently without executing the action.

The Solution

To fix this, we need to:

1. Use a wrapper script to handle the logic cleanly.
2. Force SSH to allocate a pseudo-terminal using the -tt flag.

---

Step 1: Prepare SSH Keys

Ensure your Home Assistant instance can SSH into your TV without a password.

1. Generate keys in HA: ssh-keygen -t rsa -f /config/ssh_keys/id_rsa_lg
2. Copy public key to TV: ssh-copy-id -i /config/ssh_keys/id_rsa_lg root@YOUR_TV_IP

Step 2: Create the Wrapper Script

Create a file named /config/set_tv_energy.sh and make it executable (chmod +x /config/set_tv_energy.sh).

Note: Check where luna-send is located on your TV by running which luna-send via SSH first. It is usually in /usr/bin/ or /bin/.

#!/bin/bash

# --- Configuration ---
# Path to your private key inside Home Assistant
KEY_PATH="/config/ssh_keys/id_rsa_homeassistant"

# IP Address of your LG TV
TV_IP="192.168.1.X"

# Remote command path (Check on TV with 'which luna-send')
TV_COMMAND="/usr/bin/luna-send"

# Local SSH path (usually /usr/bin/ssh)
SSH_BIN="/usr/bin/ssh"

# --- Execution ---
# $1 takes the mode argument (min, med, max, screen_off, auto, off)
# -tt : Forces pseudo-tty allocation (CRITICAL FIX)
# -o BatchMode=yes : Prevents hanging if connection fails

$SSH_BIN -tt -o BatchMode=yes -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -i $KEY_PATH root@$TV_IP \
"$TV_COMMAND -n 1 -f 'luna://com.webos.settingsservice/setSystemSettings' '{\"category\":\"picture\",\"settings\":{\"energySaving\":\"$1\",\"energySavingModified\":\"true\"}}'" > /dev/null 2>&1

# Return exit code
exit $?

Step 3: Configure Home Assistant

Add the shell command to your configuration.yaml. We use a template to pass the mode dynamically.

shell_command:
  set_lg_energy: "/config/set_tv_energy.sh {{ mode }}"

Step 4: Create Dashboard UI

You can now use this service in your Lovelace dashboard. Here is an example Grid card:

type: grid
square: false
columns: 3
cards:
  - type: button
    name: Screen Off
    icon: mdi:television-off
    tap_action:
      action: call-service
      service: shell_command.set_lg_energy
      data:
        mode: "screen_off"
  - type: button
    name: Medium Eco
    icon: mdi:leaf
    tap_action:
      action: call-service
      service: shell_command.set_lg_energy
      data:
        mode: "med"
  - type: button
    name: Normal (Off)
    icon: mdi:brightness-7
    tap_action:
      action: call-service
      service: shell_command.set_lg_energy
      data:
        mode: "off"

Valid 'mode' values

Dependent on TV Model/WebOS version. Common values are:

• off (Energy Saving disabled)
• min
• med
• max
• auto
• screen_off (Panel off, audio remains on)