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

[SebTota]

@Hawking I get an error saying that modules/color is missing or something like that. I’ve been working on it for 3 days but can’t get it to work.

[Hawking]

@SebTota

• Do you also get this error if you use a very minimal config file like

var config = {
        port: 8080,
        ipWhitelist: ["127.0.0.1", "::ffff:127.0.0.1", "::1"],
        language: "en",
        timeFormat: 24,
        units: "metric",
        modules: [
                {
                        module: "clock",
                        position: "top_left"
                },
        ]
};

/*************** DO NOT EDIT THE LINE BELOW ***************/
if (typeof module !== "undefined") {module.exports = config;}

If this works, you can step by step add the modules you want and see which one causes the problem.

• The exact error message would be helpful for an analysis.

[SebTota]

@Hawking
module.js:339
throw err;
^

Error: Cannot find module ‘express’
at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:337:15)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:287:25)
at Module.require (module.js:366:17)
at require (module.js:385:17)
at Object. (/home/pi/MagicMirror/js/server.js:8:15)
at Module._compile (module.js:435:26)
at Object.Module._extensions…js (module.js:442:10)
at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:311:12)
at Module.require (module.js:366:17)

and then the browser loads and says it cannot find http://localhost:8080

[SebTota]

@SebTota I went to my old image from before the update and thats still working fine, but when I updated it, it again had the error come up. The only difference is last time I did the update it said Error: Cannot find module ‘colors’

[Hawking]

@SebTota
I still don’t understand what update you are referring to.
Both error messages sound like there are modules missing (either “express” or “colors”).

What happens if you do

cd ~/MagicMirror && sudo npm install
cd ~/MagicMirror/vendor && npm install

[SebTota]

@Hawking My MagicMirror has been sitting for a long time. When I recently finished the frame to get the computer display and rpi zero out of my closet I booted the rpi zero and on the top of the display it said A New Version of Magic Mirror is available or something along those lines. So I went into the MagicMirror folder and used the command “git pull && npm install” as specified in the README file of MagicMirror.

[Hawking]

@SebTota said in How I got my Magic Mirror working on a Raspberry Pi 0 (zero):

git pull && npm install

Have there been errors when you did so?

I got

npm WARN lifecycle magicmirror@2.1.1~install: cannot run in wd %s %s (wd=%s) magicmirror@2.1.1 cd vendor && npm install /home/me/MagicMirror

Thats why I then did

cd ~/MagicMirror/vendor && npm install

in addition (see my post above). Maybe this also solves your problem.

[SebTota]

@Hawking Sorry to keep bothering you but I ended up making it work with the two commands you told me to do. Now my problem is when the Pi Zero W is booting it connects to the WiFi but when magic mirror boots the pi disconnects.

[Hawking]

@SebTota
Just to make sure that I understand the problem correctly:
You see the MagicMirror on the screen (Clock running etc). but you can no longer connect to the Pi Zero (using eg. ssh)?

Just as a test:
What happens if you disable the MagicMirror from autostart (for example by moving the MagicMirror start script from /etc/init.d/ to your home directory) and start it manually while you are already logged in? I don’t know your exact setup or your Linux knowledge, if you need further help how to do this, just let me know.

[SebTota]

@Hawking I actually eventually got it working. Thanks so much for all your help!