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

    My MagicMirror screen keeps turning off

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Solved Troubleshooting
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    • evroomE Offline
      evroom @evroom
      last edited by evroom

      @evroom said in My MagicMirror screen keeps turning off:

      Not sure what the other entries do

      To answer myself.

      lxpanel        0.10.0-2+rpt4 armhf        LXDE panel
      pcmanfm        1.3.1-1+rpt7 armhf        extremely fast and lightweight file manager
      point-rpi      0.20160905   armhf        Locate the mouse pointer over the menu button
      xscreensaver - not installed
      

      Using Debian Buster and a RPI 7 inch display, these settings should work for ‘screen always on’:

      @point-rpi          # locate the mouse pointer over the menu button
      @xset s off         # don't activate screensaver
      @xset -dpms         # disable DPMS (Energy Star) features.
      @xset s noblank     # don't blank the video device
      

      I left @point-rpias it sounds useful somehow; for screensaver settings not needed though.
      Will test it now.

      MagicMirror version: 2.30.0
      Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5 (8 GB RAM)
      Raspbian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

      Test environment:
      MagicMirror version: v2.30.0
      Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Plus Rev 1.3 (1 GB RAM)
      Raspbian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

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

        @evroom

        Talking to myself :-)

        The settings for Buster are not working.
        My display goes to sleep after 10 minutes.
        Perhaps because it isn’t a HDMI connected monitor.

        I found 2 interesting files though:

        pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ls -als /home/pi/.xsession-errors
        4 -rw------- 1 pi pi 2426 Aug  1 12:30 /home/pi/.xsession-errors
        pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ls -als /home/pi/.cache/lxsession/LXDE-pi/run.log
        20 -rw------- 1 pi pi 17988 Aug  1 12:30 /home/pi/.cache/lxsession/LXDE-pi/run.log
        

        Also see that this file is being used, so that seems right:

        /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart
        

        MagicMirror version: 2.30.0
        Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5 (8 GB RAM)
        Raspbian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

        Test environment:
        MagicMirror version: v2.30.0
        Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Plus Rev 1.3 (1 GB RAM)
        Raspbian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

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

          @evroom

          This works (running for 100 minutes at the moment of posting):

          $ sudo nano /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart
          @touch /home/pi/.started_etc_xdg_lxsession_LXDE-pi_autostart
          @point-rpi
          @xset -dpms
          @xset s off
          @xset s noblank
          

          Note: the autostart file does not like comments.

          Reboot:

          $ sudo reboot
          

          After reboot is finished, check:

          $ ls -als /home/pi/.started_etc_xdg_lxsession_LXDE-pi_autostart
          

          That will tell if the autostart file was used (timestamp should match reboot time).
          Then check for set errors:

          $ grep xset /home/pi/.cache/lxsession/LXDE-pi/run.log
          

          It should say 3 times Launching xset, with 3 times exit 0 (for every set entry in the autostart file).

          Works for Raspberry Pi 7" Touchscreen Display.

          $ lsb_release -a
          No LSB modules are available.
          Distributor ID:	Raspbian
          Description:	Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
          Release:	10
          Codename:	buster
          

          MagicMirror version: 2.30.0
          Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5 (8 GB RAM)
          Raspbian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

          Test environment:
          MagicMirror version: v2.30.0
          Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Plus Rev 1.3 (1 GB RAM)
          Raspbian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

          E 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • E Offline
            EhsanMomeni81
            last edited by

            @evroom said in My MagicMirror screen keeps turning off:

            sleep after 10 minutes.
            Perhaps because it isn’t a HDMI connected monitor.
            I found 2 interesting files though:

            Wow, that’s a lot to take in. Thank you so much for your help, I’m going to try this during the week.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • E Offline
              EhsanMomeni81 @evroom
              last edited by

              @evroom said in My MagicMirror screen keeps turning off:

              @evroom

              This works (running for 100 minutes at the moment of posting):

              $ sudo nano /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart
              @touch /home/pi/.started_etc_xdg_lxsession_LXDE-pi_autostart
              @point-rpi
              @xset -dpms
              @xset s off
              @xset s noblank
              

              I tried the code above, and it works on stretch, I screen doesn’t turn off. But my cronjob acts funny. Last night when I look at it after it was supposed to be turned off, the backlight was on but everything else was dark. Don’t really know whats going on, but I’ll take a new look tonight.

              E 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • E Offline
                EhsanMomeni81 @EhsanMomeni81
                last edited by

                @evroom I’m stuck :(
                I tried the code above, and it works, the screen doesn’t turn off, but now I can’t see the desktop, it’s black when I minimize the MM-window, and I can’t connect to my MM via VNC which I could before and that’s how I changed in the first place.

                evroomE 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • evroomE Offline
                  evroom @EhsanMomeni81
                  last edited by evroom

                  @EhsanMomeni81

                  Is here something useful ?
                  https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/1801/get-back-to-desktop
                  https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/5619/how-to-find-and-use-key-commands-in-mm-for-absolute-beginners

                  I personally only use VNC to “look” at the screen remotely and never use the Pi for anything else then displaying MM.
                  Not interested in the desktop.
                  I always login to the Pi using a ssh client, like for example PuTTY, or on my Mac the iTerm2.

                  If you use Windows, then I would recommend PuTTY.
                  It is small and simple.

                  MagicMirror version: 2.30.0
                  Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5 (8 GB RAM)
                  Raspbian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

                  Test environment:
                  MagicMirror version: v2.30.0
                  Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Plus Rev 1.3 (1 GB RAM)
                  Raspbian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

                  E 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • E Offline
                    EhsanMomeni81 @evroom
                    last edited by

                    @evroom
                    Thanks ever so much. I googled and found something that worked. Now everything is running as it should. Still have problems with VNC, but I installed TeamViewer, but I’m going to give ssh a shot soon. Thank you again

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • T Offline
                      TvE
                      last edited by

                      So I have also been searching a lot for an answer to this question and been wondering why it have been so difficult to find a CLI based solution to this task.

                      I am using the “Raspberry Pi Imager” tool (on Window$) to prepare a USB stick (or SD card) and hereafter configure everything via SSH.

                      I know I could just use RDP or VNC to access and thus make this change via a GUI. But that’s to annoying, hence my need for a CLI based solution

                      Finally I found it in this thread (thank you @evroom !)

                      So this is just to help others with the same search that this [1] still works on the current latest RPI OS bullseye:

                      pi@magicmirror:~ $ lsb_release -a
                      No LSB modules are available.
                      Distributor ID: Raspbian
                      Description:    Raspbian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
                      Release:        11
                      Codename:       bullseye
                      

                      Without this [1] change the screen goes black after 600s (10m)
                      Which can also be identified by the “timeout value” returned by this command.

                      pi@magicmirror:~ $ DISPLAY=:0 xset q
                      ...
                      Screen Saver:
                        prefer blanking:  yes    allow exposures:  yes
                        timeout:  600    cycle:  600
                      ...
                      

                      After fixing it the value gets set to ‘0’
                      Right now I still see the screen after 16m (and counting…)

                      How to
                      The config change can be applied in many ways (vi, nano etc) but I prefer this method (as it can be copy-pasted or be made part of a config-script).

                      [1] I “just” add the three required lines to the config file:

                      printf "@xset -dpms\n@xset s off\n@xset s noblank" | sudo tee -a /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart
                      

                      PS.: Before I found this I also tried these solutions (which all failed to solve the problem

                      A. in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf:
                      xserver-command=X -s 0 dpms
                      
                      B. Enable VNC as a workaround for mutter
                      

                      I found (but did not try)

                      C. install xscreensaver and configure it to not kick in
                      

                      HTH (my first post here :-)

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

                        @tve I wonder if my screensaver-off script would have done it.

                        see
                        https://github.com/sdetweil/MagicMirror_scripts

                        down at the bottom of the page

                        this is part of the install too, but the script is added in case u change your mind or need help. it checks 4 or 5 ways screensaver is done

                        Sam

                        How to add modules

                        learning how to use browser developers window for css changes

                        T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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