I bought a Home Assistant Yellow from the Home Assistant people so it would just work. It came with an old software version and demanded an update. 9.x to 10.x went fine. It demanded another update. 10.x to 11.0 and it’s bricked. No HTTP. No SSH. No factory reset.
This is disappointing. At least I didn’t even have a chance to set anything up, so things work just as well with it dead.
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but if this threw you for a loop, you’re in for a world of hurt once you get the software up and running. It’s not rocket science, but learning to administer any Linux server will take a little time. I’m sure it’s not bricked. Consider this an opportunity to learn how to write a new disk image and interact with your new server through the console.
I had previously run HA on a Raspberry Pi with Z-Wave, Sonoff, and some Hue, years and years ago. After searching for a Zigbee (since that seems to be the current standard and I’m starting over) adaptor that was HA compatible, I saw they offered their own hardware. After 18 months of waiting, I figured it would “just work.” Anyway, I reimaged over USB-C and it’s working. I’ll definitely do a backup before doing my first software update now that I have something to lose.