Whisper crash: Service exited with code 256 (by signal 9)

[justinmayer]

Describe the issue you are experiencing

Invoking fast-whisper via Assist yields an error: Service exited with code 256 (by signal 9)

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?

Whisper

What is the version of the add-on?

2.4.0

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Install Whisper and Piper and add the integrations according to the guide.
2. Use iOS companion app to invoke Assist.
3. Speak a command. Assist reports: "speech-to-text failed"

System Health information

System Information

version	core-2025.1.4
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	6.6.73-haos
arch	x86_64
timezone	Europe/Rome
config_dir	/config

Home Assistant Community Store

GitHub API	ok
GitHub Content	ok
GitHub Web	ok
HACS Data	ok
GitHub API Calls Remaining	4999
Installed Version	2.0.5
Stage	running
Available Repositories	1535
Downloaded Repositories	2

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 14.2
update_channel	stable
supervisor_version	supervisor-2025.02.0
agent_version	1.6.0
docker_version	27.2.0
disk_total	30.8 GB
disk_used	14.4 GB
healthy	true
supported	true
host_connectivity	true
supervisor_connectivity	true
ntp_synchronized	true
virtualization	kvm
board	ova
supervisor_api	ok
version_api	ok
installed_addons	Samba share (12.4.0), Terminal & SSH (9.16.0), ESPHome Device Builder (2024.12.4), Mosquitto broker (6.4.1), Zigbee2MQTT (1.41.0-1), File editor (5.8.0), Get HACS (1.3.1), Govee to MQTT Bridge (2025.01.04-2c39a50f), Whisper (2.4.0), Piper (1.5.2), openWakeWord (1.10.0)

Dashboards

dashboards	3
resources	0
views	1
mode	storage

Recorder

oldest_recorder_run	January 20, 2025 at 8:36 AM
current_recorder_run	February 12, 2025 at 5:07 PM
estimated_db_size	475.19 MiB
database_engine	sqlite
database_version	3.47.1

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

Nothing useful appears in the Supervisor logs.

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

Whisper add-on logs display the following output:


INFO:__main__:Ready
[10:05:21] INFO: Successfully send discovery information to Home Assistant.
s6-rc: info: service discovery successfully started
s6-rc: info: service legacy-services: starting
s6-rc: info: service legacy-services successfully started
INFO:faster_whisper:Processing audio with duration 00:03.850
[10:06:17] INFO: Service exited with code 256 (by signal 9)

Additional information

The Home Assistant OS is a VM running on Unraid 6.12.13 with CPU pass-through enabled. Host hardware is a Dell PowerEdge T110 II with a quad-core Intel® Xeon® CPU E3-1240 V2 @ 3.40GHz.

Running cat /proc/cpuinfo on the host yields:

# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 58
model name	: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1240 V2 @ 3.40GHz
stepping	: 9
microcode	: 0x21
cpu MHz		: 2891.541
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 8
core id		: 0
cpu cores	: 4
apicid		: 0
initial apicid	: 0
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 13
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm cpuid_fault epb pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase smep erms xsaveopt dtherm ida arat pln pts md_clear flush_l1d
vmx flags	: vnmi preemption_timer invvpid ept_x_only flexpriority tsc_offset vtpr mtf vapic ept vpid unrestricted_guest
bugs		: cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds swapgs itlb_multihit srbds mmio_unknown
bogomips	: 6784.74
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

[… other cores report the same information …]

Running the same command within the Home Assistant OS yields:

[core-ssh ~]$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 58
model name	: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1240 V2 @ 3.40GHz
stepping	: 9
microcode	: 0x21
cpu MHz		: 3392.288
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 2
core id		: 0
cpu cores	: 1
apicid		: 0
initial apicid	: 0
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 13
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon rep_good nopl xtopology cpuid tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq vmx ssse3 cx16 pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm cpuid_fault pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp tpr_shadow flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust smep erms xsaveopt arat vnmi umip md_clear arch_capabilities
vmx flags	: vnmi preemption_timer invvpid ept_x_only ept_1gb flexpriority tsc_offset vtpr mtf vapic ept vpid unrestricted_guest shadow_vmcs
bugs		: cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds swapgs srbds mmio_unknown bhi ibpb_no_ret
bogomips	: 6784.57
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

[… other cores report the same information …]

Related:

• Whisper container not working: Service exited with code 256 (by signal 4) on x86_64 #3035
• Whisper can not be run #3355
• whisper: Exit with error on unsupported CPU (missing AVX) #3368
• Whisper crash after version 1.0.1. #3403