How I got my Magic Mirror working on a Raspberry Pi 0 (zero)

bhepler

@SebTota What @Wieber has forgotten to mention is that the config.js.sample file is the default configuration that is included with the mirror software. The mirror software itself is looking for config.js. So the step that is missing is to copy the sample to the end file name. Once you have it copied over, this will become the file that you use to change your mirror’s behavior.

You copy the file with this command: cp ~/MagicMirror/config/config.js.sample ~/MagicMirror/config/config.js

You can then edit the config.js command as you have already discovered: nano ~/MagicMirror/config/config.js Nano is the editor, config.js is the file you are editing.

piziie

Great guide!

I have a quick question though. When my pi zero boots, it boots into a command line where i can see the modules are loading. It ends with

Ready to go! Please point your browser to: http://localhost:8080
Whoops! There was an uncaught exception...
{ [Error: listen EADDRINUSE :::8080]
  code: 'EADDRINUSE',
  errno: 'EADDRINUSE',
  syscall: 'listen',
  address: '::',
  port: 8080 }

any ideas what causes this and how it can be fixed?

SebTota

@piziie I believe my pi had the same response but after a few seconds it boots into the browser and shoes the mirror and works fine. Is it the same with you?

piziie

@SebTota
unfortunately no, it remains on the terminal. When i open a browser and go to localhost:8080 it does appear to be working so i know the MM and modules load correctly.

It seems to be an issue with the midori start script?

/home/pi/startMidori.sh

#!/bin/sh
xset -dpms # disable DPMS (Energy Star) features.
xset s off # disable screen saver
xset s noblank # don’t blank the video device
matchbox-window-manager &
unclutter &
midori -e Fullscreen -a http://localhost:8080

My /home/pi/start.sh script:

#!/bin/bash
cd ~/MagicMirror
node serveronly &
sleep 45
sudo xinit /home/pi/startMidori.sh

and the last line in .bashrc

/home/pi/start.sh

another side note- on boot i get this error:

(EE) 
Fatal server error:
(EE) Server is already active for display 0
        If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
        and start again.
(EE) 
(EE) 
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 
         at http://wiki.x.org
 for help. 
(EE) 
Starting MagicMirror: v2.1.0
Loading config ...
Loading module helpers ...
No helper found for module: alert.
Initializing new module helper ...
No helper found for module: clock.
XIO:  fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server ":0"
      after 6 requests (6 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

could this be the source of the error?

bhepler

@piziie In my experience, this means that the mirror process is already running and you’ve attempted to start it again. Are you using PM2 to manage the mirror process? Is it possible that two of your scripts are both trying to start the mirror? Have you changed any init settings to auto-boot the mirror?

SebTota

@piziie if you want I can post my image and you can write my image to your sd

piziie

@bhepler pm2 doesnt appear to be installed, however i do have npm installed. Could that cause a conflict?

Any way to the sources from which start the mirror process is starting?

Also i may have created a conflict by following the OP steps as well as the steps outlined by @kobie

Also…

Instead of adding start.sh to the end of .bashrc, it’s better practice to have the
script run automatically on start-up. To do this:

sudo mv /home/pi/start.sh /etc/init.d/startMagicMirror.sh
sudo update-rc.d startMagicMirror.sh defaults 100

This moves the script to the standard location for start-up scripts and tells the
system to run it after each boot.

I went back and deleted the startMagicMirror.sh file, however. Does update-rc.d need to be rolled back as well?

bhepler

@piziie That sounds right. Without tracing too closely, it sounds like your startMagicMirror.sh scripts and your start.sh script are both starting the mirror process.

piziie

@bhepler after deleting startMagicMirror.sh the same problem exists

bhepler

@piziie After you deleted the startMagicMirror.sh did you run the update command you quoted?
sudo update-rc.d startMagicMirror.sh remove
(more information at the the update-rc man page)

piziie

@bhepler i have run that command, same issue persists.
Could it have something to do with VNCserver?

Mar

I have MM2 running quite well on my Pi3 but I’d like to free up the Pi3 and use my zero for the MM2. Has anyone seen any real downsides to using the Pi Zero over the Pi3?

Wieber

@Mar compared to the Pi3 the processing power is way lower, so from that point of view some modules wouldnt work properly. That said, for the ‘stock’ modules and API driven modules it should all work fine. Besides that the installing process is a bit more difficult as you can read above ;)

Mar

@Wieber Thanks, I would be using the Button module, PIR sensor module, Wunderlist module, and I want to try adding the Alexa module once i transfer it over to the Pi?

Another thing I was thinking would be to integrate this into my openhab setup to bring in the status of various sensors.

SebTota

I have another question. How could i get into the terminal when the pi goes right into the browser? I cant ssh into it for some reason so is there anyway to exit the browser and go into the terminal?

bhepler

@SebTota Try CTRL+ALT+F2 (note: I have not tried this myself, but it works on other systems I use)

SebTota

Yet another question. I tried all other forums but i cant find my answer so I figured id ask here. If i have jessie lite with just the terminal, can I open up a file explorer to copy and paste a folder. I need to copy two folders over but I cant figure out how to do it.

yawns

@SebTota
cp -r source destination

SebTota

Did anyone get

https://github.com/HackerHouseYT/AI-Smart-Mirror

working on a pi zero. I know its made for a Mac but I`ve been trying somethings and cant succeed to replicate it on the Pi 0. People claim they got it working by following those instructions but im lost on how to install ffmpeg. If anyone got it working on the Pi 0 please share how.

Mar

If i don’t currently have a monitor is there a way for me to test the output of the MM when running on the zero with Raspbian lite via VNC ?