MMM-Wallpaper not showing anything

[QuackingPlums]

UPDATE:
Ok, so it wasn’t working yesterday but when I rebooted everything today it all started working — got the wallpaper showing from both bing and from iCloud.

BUT… here is the weird thing: this was with JUST the MMM-Wallpaper module active in my config.js. When I uncomment all of my other modules, they sit there doing nothing until I reboot, at which point they all work but the wallpaper stops loading.

SO… am I hitting some kind of memory limit? I have only been looking at MagicMirror for a couple of days so I have no idea how it all works internally, but It would appear that if modules are loaded in the order they appear in config.js then I am running out of memory at some point before it gets to the end.
On top of that, it appears that once modules have been loaded once they don’t release that memory even if I change my config.js and reload (ctrl-r) or restart (ctrl-q followed by npm start).
Is any of this even close to what actually happens?

I am running on a re-purposed 3B+ from an old HA build. Is it worth running MM on a newer Pi? I do have a spare 5 and I could scavenge a 4 if needed.

My modules (in order) are:

• alert
• clock
• MMM-WiFiPassword
• weather
• MMM-Flights
• MMM-AnyList
• calendar
• MMM-Wallpaper
• MMM-CalendarExt3

I was looking to add motion detection and some kind of paging/scene change mechanism to cycle between Mirror — Family Info Hub — Photo Frame — and back to Mirror mode, based on a combination of motion detected and time.

[QuackingPlums]

@sdetweil

Thanks for your reply.
I don’t see any errors but then I’m not sure if I’m in proper debug mode.
I’ve added "DEBUG" to the logLevel config parameter but there is still nothing that looks like an exception or stack trace in the terminal window.

[sdetweil]

@QuackingPlums ctrl-r only refreshes the browser side.
if a module has a node helper and it was not loaded at npm start time, the node helper will not be loaded by ctrl-r

[sdetweil]

@QuackingPlums there is no debug info produced by mmm-wallpaper

[sdetweil]

@QuackingPlums npm start output will tell you what modules are loaded and processed

there is no cache. each npm start is all new

[sdetweil]

@QuackingPlums if you are using pm2 to start at boot, you can do it manually too

pm2 restart x
where x is the name or number of the row for the app in
pm2 status

i STRONGLY recommend NOT USING pm2 while you develop your system

pm2 and a separate npm start will cause trouble

[QuackingPlums]

@sdetweil Thank you, Sam.

i STRONGLY recommend NOT USING pm2 while you develop your system

Thanks for the tip. I am not using pm2 yet — I figured that would be the last step once everything is stable and I transfer everything to my actual screen / frame / final position in the kitchen.

ctrl-r only refreshes the browser side.

Thanks — I was unsure if this stuff runs locally in-browser or if there was a server component. In any case, ctrl-q followed by npm start should clear anything browser side and reload everything server side, right? Or am I starting multiple instances here? Is there a better set of commands I should be using during development?

if a module has a node helper and it was not loaded at npm start time, the node helper will not be loaded by ctrl-r

Should there be an obvious entry in the log for helpers that are NOT loaded?
Is it common for helpers to not get loaded and how can I check why they failed to load?

Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it!

[sdetweil]

@QuackingPlums you said reboot and it worked… so assumed you meant reboot autostart

ctrl-q with npm start is good if not using pm2.

pm2 restart x 

is good for with pm2

one thing to know, is that by convention, all linux commands are supposed to provide help thru some commandline parameter, --help (or -help or -?)
pm2 --help will show you all it can do

also, MOST commands provide a manual page(s) that may further provide operational info…

man command_name

for pm2

man pm2

and example of the npm startup log

[2024-12-24 08:33:37.088] [LOG] Starting MagicMirror: v2.29.0
[2024-12-24 08:33:37.306] [LOG] Loading config ...
[2024-12-24 08:33:37.329] [LOG] config template file not exists, no envsubst
[2024-12-24 08:33:42.694] [INFO] Checking config file /home/sam/MagicMirror/config/config.js ...
[2024-12-24 08:33:43.646] [INFO] Your configuration file doesn't contain syntax errors :)
[2024-12-24 08:33:43.658] [INFO] Checking modules structure configuration ...
[2024-12-24 08:33:45.335] [INFO] Your modules structure configuration doesn't contain errors :)
[2024-12-24 08:33:48.547] [LOG] Loading module helpers ...
[2024-12-24 08:33:48.624] [LOG] No helper found for module: alert.
[2024-12-24 08:33:49.010] [LOG] Initializing new module helper ...
[2024-12-24 08:33:49.115] [LOG] Module helper loaded: updatenotification
[2024-12-24 08:33:49.142] [LOG] No helper found for module: clock.  <--- this module doesn't have a node_helper..  IF you see a module HAS one but you get this message then need to investigate
[2024-12-24 08:33:57.071] [LOG] Initializing new module helper ...
[2024-12-24 08:33:57.089] [LOG] Module helper loaded: calendar
[2024-12-24 08:33:57.140] [LOG] No helper found for module: compliments.
[2024-12-24 08:33:57.187] [LOG] No helper found for module: weather.
[2024-12-24 08:34:02.093] [LOG] Initializing new module helper ...
[2024-12-24 08:34:02.115] [LOG] Module helper loaded: newsfeed
[2024-12-24 08:34:02.149] [LOG] All module helpers loaded.   //< all helpers loaded
[2024-12-24 08:34:02.671] [LOG] Starting server on port 8080 ...   
[2024-12-24 08:34:04.178] [LOG] Server started ...
[2024-12-24 08:34:04.211] [LOG] Connecting socket for: updatenotification
[2024-12-24 08:34:04.249] [LOG] Starting module helper: updatenotification
[2024-12-24 08:34:04.288] [LOG] Connecting socket for: calendar
[2024-12-24 08:34:04.317] [LOG] Starting node helper for: calendar
[2024-12-24 08:34:04.347] [LOG] Connecting socket for: newsfeed
[2024-12-24 08:34:04.375] [LOG] Starting node helper for: newsfeed
[2024-12-24 08:34:04.406] [LOG] Sockets connected & modules started ...
[2024-12-24 08:34:04.428] [INFO]
>>> Ready to go! Please point your browser to: http://localhost:8080 <<<   // <---- all the server side setup is done,  browser invoked for embedded , remote browser can now connect to get page html (index.html from server, which causes all the browser side modules to be loaded and started) 

these messages are generated by the server side components ACCESSed by the browser side

[2024-12-24 08:35:31.657] [LOG]   Create new calendarfetcher for url: https://ics.calendarlabs.com/76/mm3137/US_Holidays.ics - Interval: 604800000 
[2024-12-24 08:35:38.697] [LOG]   Create new newsfetcher for url: https://rss.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/HomePage.xml - Interval: 300000 
[2024-12-24 08:35:39.025] [INFO]  updatenotification: Updater Class Loaded! 
[2024-12-24 08:35:39.034] [INFO]  updatenotification: Checking PM2 using... 
[2024-12-24 08:35:48.714] [INFO]  Checking git for module: MagicMirror 

these messages are produced by the individual module node_helpers during execution

[2024-12-24 08:36:14.856] [INFO]  Calendar-Fetcher: Broadcasting 13 events from https://ics.calendarlabs.com/76/mm3137/US_Holidays.ics. 
[2024-12-24 08:36:15.779] [INFO]  updatenotification: [PM2] You are not using pm2 

this is helpful for debug, all in one place

[2024-12-24 08:36:17.261] [INFO]  System information:
### SYSTEM:   manufacturer: Raspberry Pi Foundation; model: Raspberry Pi Zero W Rev 1.1; virtual: false
### OS:       platform: linux; distro: Raspbian GNU/Linux; release: 11; arch: arm; kernel: 6.1.21+
### VERSIONS: electron: undefined; used node: 20.18.1; installed node: 20.18.1; npm: 10.8.2; pm2: 5.4.3
### OTHER:    timeZone: America/Chicago; ELECTRON_ENABLE_GPU: undefined 

[sdetweil]

@QuackingPlums I added your MMM-Wallpaper config to my system and it works 1st time…

not using flight or anylist
but all the rest