Multiple screens fo MM.

ninjabreadman

@Joshrobbs1 Two monitors on each side, or one each/two total? You could run two completely separate mirror instances, or one instance (i.e. server) and hide the modules (via CSS) you don’t want displayed on each one.

I suggest using a Raspberry Pi Zero W to power one display, run a browser and connect to the other instance/server (or run an MM instance on the RPi Zero W). The server could be on a more powerful Raspberry Pi (3b) or some old laptop hardware. You would want to run the simpler, static modules (weather, time, calendar) on the RPi Zero W and the more demanding, processor-intensive modules (voice, video feeds, complex rendering) on the server.

I don’t know how MM feels about running two instances on the same machine – you’d need to set different ports, scripts, etc, but I imagine it’s possible with some reconfiguration to avoid collisions.

hogedir

@ninjabreadman Hi,

Now we have a rpi4B with 2 screens available, and i want to display on 2 screens the magic mirror.

is it possible with the version 2.20 ?

kayakbabe

@hogedir With a raspberry 4 you can have two displays. I’m thinking they can be set up as an extended desktop . Then it’s no big deal with the default magic mirror.
Top_left and top_right would end up being left and right…
I haven’t tried this with MM. But I have used my pi with two screens. But in my mind it ought to work with MM.
Just don’t use the middle_center or any position that would span across both monitors.

hogedir

@kayakbabe I think we need two electron display, so it’s not quite easy. it’s not just top_left and top_right. I need 2 MMM, 1 magic mirror per screen.

sdetweil

@hogedir electron (and other browsers) runs maximized, which is only one screen…

you can DRAG the edge to make the window larger, but cannot maximize over two screens…

you can run separate instances of MM on each display…

BKeyport

@hogedir I had two running off one display, just two different Magicmirror installs. I forgot how it works though, was using them as a temporary menu display.

Something about calling different config files if I recall right.

sdetweil

@BKeyport MM_CONFIG environment variable

allows the different configs off the same directory tree

karam

@BKeyport this answer inspired me to test it, so I have a solution:

create two different folders.
configure each install as you like.
edit each electron file in each folder “js/electron.js”
change the default resolution and position based on your screens.
here is my config:

let electronOptionsDefaults = {
                width: 1280,
                height: 1024,
                x: 1366,
                y: 0,
                             }

NOTE: there are many better methods (electron-multi-monitor for example) but this is the easiest that I could find

sdetweil

@karam u can set the electronOptions in config.js, you don’t need to edit the source file

then you can do it with one folder,
and two config files

environment variable
MM_CONFIG=config1.js
for one

and
MM_CONFIG=config2.js
for the other

all modules for both are installed in modules folder, only ones referenced in config file are used

installers/mm.sh is the script used by my pm2 setup routine
copy that to mm2.sh
and then add the export MM_CONFIG=
to each

then copy the pm2_magicmirror.json
and change the title and the mm.sh filename

then pm2 start installers/??? (whatever name u copied the json file to for the second mm)
pm2 save
then on reboot you will get both

cburchett

@sdetweil: can you please share an example? I am not sure how to indicate the secondary display in the config files. Thank you!

sdetweil

@cburchett it’s one big display, so you have to tell it how far from the left edge to start this display.
see
https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/6623/multiple-screens-fo-mm/18?_=1666468889775

only need x for horizontal monitors
or y for vertical

cburchett

@sdetweil Perfect! Thank you.

Sagar73594

@sdetweil said in Multiple screens fo MM.:

MM_CONFIG=config1.js

Can you please elaborate, a little bit more? I’m trying this, but not understood well.
Thank You.

sdetweil

@Sagar73594 if you have a bash or sh script, you can set environment variables that the MM code will read

export MM_CONFIG=??? filename

will cause filename to be used as the name of the file to read for configuration (replacing config.js)

if you use my install script and selected use pm2, then the script is
~/MagicMirror/installers/mm.sh

before the line
npm start
add the line above to set the file name

so, by using different config files, one could launch multiple instances of MagicMirror from the same set of files.
some could target one display and others another, and some could be server only as weill.

one could also install 50 modules and use the same 25 in all instances and some mix of the others in different instances, all from the same set of files in the MagicMirror folder tree.

chichi1887

@sdetweil said in Multiple screens fo MM.:

@Sagar73594 if you have a bash or sh script, you can set environment variables that the MM code will read

export MM_CONFIG=??? filename

will cause filename to be used as the name of the file to read for configuration (replacing config.js)

if you use my install script and selected use pm2, then the script is
~/MagicMirror/installers/mm.sh

before the line
npm start
add the line above to set the file name

so, by using different config files, one could launch multiple instances of MagicMirror from the same set of files.
some could target one display and others another, and some could be server only as weill.

one could also install 50 modules and use the same 25 in all instances and some mix of the others in different instances, all from the same set of files in the MagicMirror folder tree.

chichi1887

@sdetweil said in Multiple screens fo MM.:

@Sagar73594 if you have a bash or sh script, you can set environment variables that the MM code will read

export MM_CONFIG=??? filename

will cause filename to be used as the name of the file to read for configuration (replacing config.js)

if you use my install script and selected use pm2, then the script is
~/MagicMirror/installers/mm.sh

before the line
npm start
add the line above to set the file name

so, by using different config files, one could launch multiple instances of MagicMirror from the same set of files.
some could target one display and others another, and some could be server only as weill.

one could also install 50 modules and use the same 25 in all instances and some mix of the others in different instances, all from the same set of files in the MagicMirror folder tree.

Hi Sagar,

Hello Sagar, thank you for your guidance. Unfortunately, I keep encountering an error upon startup. A version starts automatically with the familiar error message “npm run config: check”. I stop the MagicMirror and manually start it from the MagicMirror folder with npm start, but then it allegedly cannot find the config. As you described, I created config1 and config2, then edited installers/mm.sh and mm2.sh. It looks something like this now:
cd ~/MagicMirror
export MM_CONFIG=config2.js
DISPLAY=:2 npm start

I also copied the pm2_MagicMirros.json once and simply appended a “1” to the name. The configuration looks like this:
“apps” : [{
“name” : “MagicMirror”,
“script” : “/home/pi/MagicMirror/installers/mm.sh”,
“watch” : [“/home/pi/MagicMirror/config/config1.js”]

Do you perhaps have any tips for me on what I might be doing wrong?

sdetweil

@chichi1887 well, you need two pm2_MagcMirror.json, right? and each points to a different mm.sh, right?
original
pm2_MagicMirror.json

"apps" : [{
"name" : "MM_Screen1",
"script" : "/home/pi/MagicMirror/installers/mm.sh",
"watch" : ["/home/pi/MagicMirror/config/config.js"]

new pm2_MagicMirror2.json

"apps" : [{
"name" : "MM_Screen2",
"script" : "/home/pi/MagicMirror/installers/mm2.sh",
"watch" : ["/home/pi/MagicMirror/config/config2.js"]

then
pm2 start each json
and then pm2 save

to test before pm2 start , you can

cd ~/MagicMirror
installers/mm2.sh

or

cd ~/MagicMirror
installers/mm.sh

to start them both, open another terminal window or ssh session, starting one in each

ctrl-c in the term window will end that instance

chichi1887

@sdetweil said in Multiple screens fo MM.:

cd ~/MagicMirror
installers/mm2.sh

Hey,

the mm.sh starts without a problem but the second has this

all modules that starts on the mm.sh are disable in the mm2 config.
Display=0 in both are correkt or the second must be nr.1?

chichi1887

When I start the mm2.sh script, despite the correct configuration, it takes the config.js instead of the config2.js. Therefore, it seems unable to start both instances simultaneously because it attempts to open the same config.js. The configuration looks like this in the mm2.sh script:
cd ~/MagicMirror
export MM_CONFIG=config2.js
DISPLAY=:0 npm start

the pm2_MagicMirror2.json is copy and paste from u ;-)

sdetweil

@chichi1887 see this from the doc