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    A New Chapter for MagicMirror: The Community Takes the Lead
    Read the statement by Michael Teeuw here.

    pm2 doesnt work with crontab

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Troubleshooting
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    • plainbrokeP Offline
      plainbroke @sdetweil
      last edited by

      @sdetweil
      From that post about an hour. and it was supposed to trigger this morning around 6:30 am.
      It did not and it did not leave anything in the logs since last night when I pm2 stop all then pm2 flush. around 8:30 pm .
      So that means cron job did nothing with pm2 over night
      I have been experimenting so there are a couple different job lines.
      I really expected something in the log. But this is all I get.

      pi@MM:~ $ pm2 logs --lines=100
      [TAILING] Tailing last 100 lines for [all] processes (change the value with --lines option)
      /home/pi/.pm2/pm2.log last 100 lines:
      /home/pi/.pm2/logs/mm-out.log last 100 lines:
      /home/pi/.pm2/logs/mm-error.log last 100 lines:
      

      My Crontab on 2 different MM setups. I get the same nothing on both.
      Both are running Bookworm and MM 2.3.1

      05 20 * * * pi /usr/local/bin/pm2 start mm
      15 07 * * * pi pm2 start mm
      30 21 * * * pi pm2 stop mm
      05 20 * * * root /usr/local/bin/pm2 start mm
      15 07 * * * root pm2 start mm
      30 21 * * * root pm2 stop mm
      

      Slow learner. But trying anyways.
      MM is on Raspberry Pi 4B w/8gb ram loaded on a 128gb nvme drive.
      Running Trixie and the latest MM version.

      C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • C Offline
        chrisfr1976 @plainbroke
        last edited by chrisfr1976

        @plainbroke

        Hi,

        try this:

        crontab -e with connected user:

        05 20 * * * /usr/bin/pm2 start mm
        15 07 * * * /usr/bin/pm2 start mm
        30 21 * * * /usr/bin/pm2 stop mm
        
        • sudo crontab -e is not necessary.
        • I do not understand the start at 20:05 (first line)
        • my pm2 is in /usr/bin
        • always use full path in crontab

        If you’re not sure where PM2 is you can use find / -iname pm2 in the console. Important is the full path in crontab.
        /home/chris/.nvm/versions/node/v22.9.0/lib/node_modules/pm2/pm2 would be an alternative for me.

        Regards, Chris.

        plainbrokeP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • plainbrokeP Offline
          plainbroke @chrisfr1976
          last edited by plainbroke

          @chrisfr1976 said in pm2 doesnt work with crontab:

          find / -iname pm2

          /usr/local/bin/pm2
          /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2
          /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2
          /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/lib/templates/logrotate.d/pm2
          /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/pm2
          
          
          /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/.bin/pm2
          /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2
          /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2
          /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/lib/templates/logrotate.d/pm2
          /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/pm2
          
          

          Which is the true one and one to use?

          Slow learner. But trying anyways.
          MM is on Raspberry Pi 4B w/8gb ram loaded on a 128gb nvme drive.
          Running Trixie and the latest MM version.

          C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • C Offline
            chrisfr1976 @plainbroke
            last edited by

            @plainbroke
            Then use this:
            /usr/local/bin/pm2

            Regards, Chris.

            plainbrokeP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • plainbrokeP Offline
              plainbroke @chrisfr1976
              last edited by plainbroke

              @chrisfr1976
              @sdetweil
              Thank you both for the help.
              /usr/local/bin/pm2 restart mm
              worked so I set it up to stop now and if (fingers crossed) works.
              I am golden.
              Wonder why I never had to use the full path before?
              Maybe my pm2 path was /home/pi/pm2 before.
              Doesn’t really matter as long as it works, I am a happy camper.
              It works.
              Thank you so much… I will mark this solved.
              Well I would if I could… strange.

              By the way " which pm2 " shows the path that I needed to use in crontab -e

              Slow learner. But trying anyways.
              MM is on Raspberry Pi 4B w/8gb ram loaded on a 128gb nvme drive.
              Running Trixie and the latest MM version.

              S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • S Offline
                sdetweil @plainbroke
                last edited by sdetweil

                @plainbroke awesome

                i should have remembered the path problem

                Sam

                How to add modules

                learning how to use browser developers window for css changes

                plainbrokeP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • plainbrokeP Offline
                  plainbroke @sdetweil
                  last edited by

                  @sdetweil
                  Did the new MM and or trixie change the way crontab works? Mine has stopped working since the update to 2.33. I tried again tonight and will see if the changes work or not… also my mm.json file quit working. Hind sight is 20/20 should have left well enough alone…

                  Slow learner. But trying anyways.
                  MM is on Raspberry Pi 4B w/8gb ram loaded on a 128gb nvme drive.
                  Running Trixie and the latest MM version.

                  S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • S Offline
                    sdetweil @plainbroke
                    last edited by

                    @plainbroke I do not know

                    Sorry, I have to ask, you DID use a new sd card, right?

                    What does /var/log/syslog say about the crontab execution

                    Did you use crontab -e
                    Or sudo crontab -e

                    1st is run as user who executed the crontab command
                    2nd is run as root

                    Sam

                    How to add modules

                    learning how to use browser developers window for css changes

                    plainbrokeP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • plainbrokeP Offline
                      plainbroke @sdetweil
                      last edited by plainbroke

                      @sdetweil
                      Using NVMe disk 256gb smallest I had on hand. 3 of them are exhibiting the same issues. I did try going back to Bookworm and I am still getthing a blank screen after a while. I ran npm run config:check it says all is good in the config.js ////
                      I am currently reloading from scratch.
                      Which OS is better for the 2.33 MM? 32 or 64 bit?
                      Wondering if I was using 32 bit and now the 64 bit is messing with me… So dang many things can mess with these little devices.

                      I only use crontab -e, should I try sudo crontab -e

                      Slow learner. But trying anyways.
                      MM is on Raspberry Pi 4B w/8gb ram loaded on a 128gb nvme drive.
                      Running Trixie and the latest MM version.

                      S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • S Offline
                        sdetweil @plainbroke
                        last edited by sdetweil

                        @plainbroke no, without sudo is best

                        Maybe pm2 isn’t in the path when crontab fires
                        Check the syslog for crontab errors

                        32 bit is about to be trouble.

                        The latest nodejs version, 24, has dropped builds for 32 bit

                        Sam

                        How to add modules

                        learning how to use browser developers window for css changes

                        plainbrokeP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • plainbrokeP Offline
                          plainbroke @sdetweil
                          last edited by plainbroke

                          @sdetweil
                          Thanks for the info I almost pulled down 32 bit.
                          It has been interesting to say the least going to trixie.
                          Turns out my problem was a failed NVMe drive.
                          I thought those things where supposed to last for a LONG long time…
                          I did get crontab -e to work with trixie and MM 2.33 not a fun ride, but entertaining. I finally learned how to use bash to make batch style files…
                          So not a complete loss of time…

                          Slow learner. But trying anyways.
                          MM is on Raspberry Pi 4B w/8gb ram loaded on a 128gb nvme drive.
                          Running Trixie and the latest MM version.

                          S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • S Offline
                            sdetweil @plainbroke
                            last edited by

                            @plainbroke technology is SOOOO much fun! Simple, til it’s not!

                            Thanks for the feedback. Others will ask, I’m sure they could use your help!

                            Sam

                            How to add modules

                            learning how to use browser developers window for css changes

                            plainbrokeP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • plainbrokeP Offline
                              plainbroke @sdetweil
                              last edited by plainbroke

                              @sdetweil
                              Ok crontab -e worked last night to shutdown MM. So the pm2 stop all worked.
                              BUT this morning the pm2 restart mm did nothing.
                              I used find to get these:

                              /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/.bin/pm2
                              /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2
                              /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2
                              /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/lib/templates/logrotate.d/pm2
                              /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/pm2
                              /usr/local/bin/pm2
                              /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2
                              /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2
                              /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/lib/templates/logrotate.d/pm2
                              /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/pm2
                              
                              

                              ANY idea on which one would work better.?
                              Here is my current crontab -e

                              # Turn off display at 9pm
                              00 21 * * 0-6 /usr/local/bin/pm2 stop all >/dev/null >2&1
                              # Turn on screen Monday - Friday at 6:45 am
                              45 06 * * 1-5 /usr/local/bin/pm2 start mm >/dev/null >2&1
                              # Turn on screen Saturday - Sunday at 7:30 am
                              30 07 * * 6,0 /usr/local/bin/pm2 start mm >/dev/null >2&1
                              
                              

                              Slow learner. But trying anyways.
                              MM is on Raspberry Pi 4B w/8gb ram loaded on a 128gb nvme drive.
                              Running Trixie and the latest MM version.

                              S mumblebajM 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • S Offline
                                sdetweil @plainbroke
                                last edited by sdetweil

                                @plainbroke which one, if any , are in the path
                                Are they all executable?

                                ls -laF
                                Will give you the permissions mask

                                Are any of them links to another?

                                What changed?

                                /usr/local/bin/pm2
                                Should be the one

                                Sam

                                How to add modules

                                learning how to use browser developers window for css changes

                                plainbrokeP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • S Offline
                                  sdetweil @plainbroke
                                  last edited by

                                  @plainbroke also look in /var/log/syslog
                                  To find the logging of the execute at the time it should fire

                                  Sam

                                  How to add modules

                                  learning how to use browser developers window for css changes

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • plainbrokeP Offline
                                    plainbroke @sdetweil
                                    last edited by

                                    @sdetweil
                                    Weird, I do not have /var/log/syslog.
                                    Even did a find for it nothing, popped up…

                                    pi@Pixie:~ $ ls -laF
                                    total 348
                                    drwx------ 15 pi   pi     4096 Nov 10 15:36 ./
                                    drwxr-xr-x  3 root root   4096 Sep 30 19:18 ../
                                    -rw-------  1 pi   pi     9080 Nov 10 13:17 .bash_history
                                    -rw-r--r--  1 pi   pi      220 Sep 30 19:06 .bash_logout
                                    -rw-r--r--  1 pi   pi     3523 Sep 30 19:06 .bashrc
                                    drwx------ 13 pi   pi     4096 Nov  7 18:22 .cache/
                                    drwx------ 22 pi   pi     4096 Nov  8 12:57 .config/
                                    drwx------  3 pi   pi     4096 Nov  7 17:49 .dbus/
                                    drwxrwxr-x  2 pi   pi     4096 Sep 30 19:17 Desktop/
                                    drwx------  2 pi   pi     4096 Nov  7 23:11 Documents/
                                    -rw-rw-r--  1 pi   pi        0 Nov  7 20:00 .gitconfig
                                    -rw-rw-r--  1 pi   pi       81 Nov  7 18:24 .gtkrc-2.0
                                    -rw-rw-r--  1 pi   pi   222126 Oct 27 18:52 install.log
                                    drwx------  4 pi   pi     4096 Sep 30 19:18 .local/
                                    drwxrwxr-x 16 pi   pi     4096 Nov  8 12:54 MagicMirror/
                                    -rwxrwxrwx  1 pi   pi      320 Jun 12  2022 mm.json*
                                    -rwxrwxrwx  1 pi   pi       38 Jul 16  2023 mm.sh*
                                    drwx------  4 pi   pi     4096 Nov  6 21:05 .mozilla/
                                    drwxrwxr-x  4 pi   pi     4096 Oct 27 18:30 .npm/
                                    drwx------  3 pi   pi     4096 Oct 27 18:52 .pki/
                                    drwxrwxr-x  5 pi   pi     4096 Nov  9 17:24 .pm2/
                                    -rw-r--r--  1 pi   pi      807 Sep 30 19:06 .profile
                                    -rw-rw-r--  1 pi   pi       66 Oct 27 19:22 .selected_editor
                                    drwxrwxr-x  4 pi   pi     4096 Nov 10 15:43 shared/
                                    -rw-r--r--  1 pi   pi        0 Sep 30 19:18 .sudo_as_admin_successful
                                    drwx------  3 pi   pi     4096 Nov  5 17:30 .vnc/
                                    -rw-------  1 pi   pi       50 Nov  9 17:24 .Xauthority
                                    -rw-------  1 pi   pi     8238 Nov  9 19:32 .xsession-errors
                                    -rw-------  1 pi   pi     7945 Nov  9 17:24 .xsession-errors.old
                                    
                                    

                                    Slow learner. But trying anyways.
                                    MM is on Raspberry Pi 4B w/8gb ram loaded on a 128gb nvme drive.
                                    Running Trixie and the latest MM version.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • mumblebajM Offline
                                      mumblebaj Module Developer @plainbroke
                                      last edited by

                                      @plainbroke Instead of piping the output to a blackhole, maybe pipe it to a logfile which you can interrogate to see why the pm2 start is not working?

                                      Check out my modules at: https://github.com/mumblebaj?tab=repositories
                                      Check my blog-post: https://mumblebaj.xyz/
                                      Check my MM Container: https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/mumblebaj/magicmirror/general

                                      evroomE 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • evroomE Offline
                                        evroom @mumblebaj
                                        last edited by

                                        About /var/log/syslog.
                                        Debian does not use that anymore, already since a while.
                                        As far as I understand it, you will need to get familiar with journalctl.
                                        For cron jobs try this:

                                        $ journalctl --since "1 hour ago" --unit cron.service
                                        
                                        $ journalctl -f -u cron.service
                                        

                                        Happy hunting.

                                        MagicMirror version: 2.33.0
                                        Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5 (8 GB RAM)
                                        Raspbian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

                                        Test environment:
                                        MagicMirror version: v2.33.0
                                        Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Plus Rev 1.3 (1 GB RAM)
                                        Raspbian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

                                        plainbrokeP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • plainbrokeP Offline
                                          plainbroke @evroom
                                          last edited by

                                          @evroom,
                                          I get that nothing is found, when I run either of your suggestions.

                                          @mumblebaj
                                          Explain piping, Please…

                                          Slow learner. But trying anyways.
                                          MM is on Raspberry Pi 4B w/8gb ram loaded on a 128gb nvme drive.
                                          Running Trixie and the latest MM version.

                                          S evroomE mumblebajM 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • S Offline
                                            sdetweil @plainbroke
                                            last edited by sdetweil

                                            @plainbroke piping is a technique of stitching together multiple commands to accomplish a task

                                            The vertical bar is called the pipe character
                                            Which takes the output of the left side and presents it as input to the right side , so its like forming a pipe

                                            When I want to find all the MagicMirror processes running in the background I do this

                                            ps -ef
                                            

                                            This give the processes and the command line used to start them
                                            But is a lot of data

                                            So I can filter that with grep , and I can pass in data on its stdin

                                            ps -ef | grep -i MagicMirror 
                                            

                                            That gives just the rows of the process list with MagicMirror on them

                                            But if I want to kill them I need the process id on each row
                                            That’s the second value on each row
                                            I can use the awk command to get that

                                            ps -ef | grep -i MagicMirror | awk ‘{ print $2}’
                                            

                                            Now I have the process ids and can issue the kill command with them

                                            ps -ef | grep -i MagicMirror | awk ‘{ print $2}’ |  xargs sudo  kill -9
                                            

                                            Sam

                                            How to add modules

                                            learning how to use browser developers window for css changes

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