Clean installation... fails left and right

bhepler

@devinhedge said in Clean installation... fails left and right:

Config info:

RasPi 3b+
8GB SD card
Running on Rasbian Stretch Lite
Attempting to run using sample config.js
No other installed modules at this point
Attempting to run as either server/client or server only

Well, I think I’ve detected your problem. From the GitHub page for the Magic Mirror project:

Note that you will need to install the latest full version of Raspbian, don’t use the Lite version.

So. My advice is to pull your SD card and flash the full desktop version of Raspbian Stretch. I don’t think you need the “recommended software” version, but you do need the desktop.

Edited to add: It seems others have similar problems with the latest version of Raspian. Apparently they changed something in the base images. Anyhow, follow this advice and you should be able to get back on track.

MichMich

@devinhedge said in Clean installation... fails left and right:

Not to be snarky… really… I’m concerned that MagicMirror isn’t being maintained. During installation there are a lot of deprecated node.js module warnings, and security warnings…

As others have said, most of your problems are because you use Raspbian Lite.

That being said: you have a point. The auto installer script isn’t maintained as well as I want it to be. Due to the fast development speed of Raspbian, it runs into issues. Since most of the contributors don’t install the core from scratch very often, we don’t run into these issues.

I’m considering deprecating the automatic installer and suggesting to manual install Node, clone MagicMirror and then run npm install. To be fair: that’s how I install my MagicMirror.

Of course, PR’s to fix the auto-installer are more than welcome!

dazza120

Yep I tried lite on my Pi 3B+ but it doesn’t work, Stretch desktop works, but think I had to go for the full package ie all the bloat ware, I’ve uninstalled all the rubbish now, but it’s not really an issue for me as I’m running my Pi off of an SSD so no sd card size limit/price, PS I think from what I remember I had to do a manual install and then install PM2 as it didn’t boot MM after reboot

shbatm

I’m seeing issues with the newest “Raspbian Stretch with desktop image” (Nov 2018–non-bloatware) as well – I did a fresh, manual installation, no errors, but electron will not start with the OpenGL driver (full KMS or fake KMS) enabled. It runs through everything fine on npm start but then just stalls at “Launching application.” If I disable OpenGL, it works fine.

Tested at Tag v2.6.0 and on the develop branch (2.7.0-dev), same issues.

EDIT: Definitely an issue with electron: adding app.disableHardwareAcceleration(); in js/electron.js makes it open fine.

EDIT 2: Opened an issue for this #1500, looks like Electron v3.0.13 works.

devinhedge

@shbatm @dazza120 @MichMich @bhepler @Mykle1

Okay… I think I’ve figured it out. It isn’t good news:

I’ve brought this up on another thread, but I’ll mention here so that it is captured in context: for the last couple months Node.js and npm are currently BROKEN on RaspberryPi.

I just tried a test this morning using the started Electron app at https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/first-app

Running the automated install is a Red Herring. It is inappropriate to suggest it.

We have to figure out how to fix the bugs in the Node.js installation for Raspberry Pi before anything else. I’m wondering if installing an older version of Node.js is the solution. If so, then what version would we start with?

shbatm

@devinhedge said in Clean installation... fails left and right:

for the last couple months Node.js and npm are currently BROKEN on RaspberryPi.

What version of node are you using and how are you trying to install it? Node.Js works fine with Raspberry Pi, just don’t install it from the default repos. Use these instructions:

https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/blob/master/README.md

I’ve installed both v8 and v10 successfully multiple times on new Pis in the last few months.

shbatm

@shbatm said in Clean installation... fails left and right:

I’m seeing issues with the newest “Raspbian Stretch with desktop image” (Nov 2018–non-bloatware) as well – I did a fresh, manual installation, no errors, but electron will not start with the OpenGL driver (full KMS or fake KMS) enabled.

Confirming what I confirmed in the issue on GitHub just so others aren’t misled… Upgrading to Electron v3.0.13 is working fine (this is now the version installed if you use the develop branch of MM). V2.x is not working on the new Raspbian because of the OpenGL driver and we can’t use V4.x yet because of bad dependency references.

dazza120

@shbatm how do I find out what version of electron I have, I’m on the latest version of Magic Mirror and would love to update everything on that side

shbatm

@dazza120

cat ~/MagicMirror/node_modules/electron/package.json | grep '"version":'

Upgrade with:

cd ~/MagicMirror/
npm install electron@3.0.13

devinhedge

@shbatm said in Clean installation... fails left and right:

@devinhedge said in Clean installation... fails left and right:

for the last couple months Node.js and npm are currently BROKEN on RaspberryPi.

What version of node are you using and how are you trying to install it?

Current from default Rasbian repos.

Node.Js works fine with Raspberry Pi, just don’t install it from the default repos.

That may be the problem.

Use these instructions:

https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/blob/master/README.md

I’ve installed both v8 and v10 successfully multiple times on new Pis in the last few months.

I’ll give it a whirl. I was able to recreate the error 4 times so I just need to copy over the steps to recreate. I don’t have a lot of time to spend on it today.

dazza120

@shbatm said in Clean installation... fails left and right:

cat ~/MagicMirror/node_modules/electron/package.json | grep ‘“version”:’

Thanks appears I was running electron 2.0.16 3.0.13 installed fixed a few vulnerabilities and all seems to be working fine on the Pi3B+

devinhedge

Instructions for Installing MagicMirror on Rasbian Stretch Lite

Install base Rasbian Stretch Lite image

Update base installation

sudo raspi-config

Update pi password
Update Timezone
Update Keyboard
Update hostname
Update Localization (language)
Update WiFi configuration
Expand file system and reboot
Enable ssh
Update System

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Install Xserver, LXDE-gui, lightdm and other nescessary things:

sudo apt-get install raspberrypi-ui-mods firefox-esr build-essentials git -y

Use raspi-config to autologin pi user to gui at boot

raspi-config
sudo reboot

Use Raspi

Install Node.js from source

Remove Chris Lea’s Node.js if it has accidently been installed

sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/chris-lea-node_js-.list
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/chris-lea-node_js-.list.save

Add the NodeSource package signing key

curl -sSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -

Add the desired NodeSource repository

VERSION=node_10.x
DISTRO=“$(lsb_release -s -c)”
echo “deb https://deb.nodesource.com/$VERSION $DISTRO main” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list
echo “deb-src https://deb.nodesource.com/$VERSION $DISTRO main” | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list

Test if the installation is good.

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/test | bash -

Received:

(node:15418) TimeoutOverflowWarning: 4294967296000 does not fit into a 32-bit signed integer.
Timer duration was truncated to 2147483647.
SUCCESS
(node:15418) [DEP0005] DeprecationWarning: Buffer() is deprecated due to security and usability issues. Please use the Buffer.alloc(), Buffer.allocUnsafe(), or Buffer.from() methods instead.

Install the Sample Node.js Electron app

npm install --save-dev electron

Git clone the sample app

git clone https://github.com/electron/electron-quick-start.git

Then install it and run

cd ./electron-quick-start
npm install
npm start

Received:

0 info it worked if it ends with ok
1 verbose cli [ '/usr/bin/node', '/usr/bin/npm', 'start' ]
2 info using npm@6.4.1
3 info using node@v10.15.0
4 verbose run-script [ 'prestart', 'start', 'poststart' ]
5 info lifecycle electron-quick-start@1.0.0~prestart: electron-quick-start@1.0.0
6 info lifecycle electron-quick-start@1.0.0~start: electron-quick-start@1.0.0
7 verbose lifecycle electron-quick-start@1.0.0~start: unsafe-perm in lifecycle true
8 verbose lifecycle electron-quick-start@1.0.0~start: PATH: /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npm-lifecycle/node-gyp-bin:/home/pi/electron-quick-start/node_modules/.bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games
9 verbose lifecycle electron-quick-start@1.0.0~start: CWD: /home/pi/electron-quick-start
10 silly lifecycle electron-quick-start@1.0.0~start: Args: [ '-c', 'electron .' ]
11 silly lifecycle electron-quick-start@1.0.0~start: Returned: code: 1  signal: null
12 info lifecycle electron-quick-start@1.0.0~start: Failed to exec start script
13 verbose stack Error: electron-quick-start@1.0.0 start: `electron .`
13 verbose stack Exit status 1
13 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npm-lifecycle/index.js:301:16)
13 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.emit (events.js:182:13)
13 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npm-lifecycle/lib/spawn.js:55:14)
13 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:182:13)
13 verbose stack     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:962:16)
13 verbose stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:251:5)
14 verbose pkgid electron-quick-start@1.0.0
15 verbose cwd /home/pi/electron-quick-start
16 verbose Linux 4.14.79-v7+
17 verbose argv "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "start"
18 verbose node v10.15.0
19 verbose npm  v6.4.1
20 error code ELIFECYCLE
21 error errno 1
22 error electron-quick-start@1.0.0 start: `electron .`
22 error Exit status 1
23 error Failed at the electron-quick-start@1.0.0 start script.
23 error This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
24 verbose exit [ 1, true ]

I’m beginning to think about the quote:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

shbatm

@devinhedge said in Clean installation... fails left and right:

Install Node.js from source

The Nodesource install scripts will save you some time/steps:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

It looks like everything installed correctly. As has been said before:

@michmich said in Clean installation... fails left and right:

As others have said, most of your problems are because you use Raspbian Lite.

The electron-quick-start app tries to install electron v4.0, which as I said above, does not work on the latest version of Raspbian–you need to use v3.0.13 (npm i electron@3.0.13).

Also, are you trying to run electron from the Pi’s desktop or SSH? If you’re running it from SSH you need to run it with DISPLAY=:0 npm start