General Mucking Around with MM

[BKeyport]

What I did was to simlink my config.js and custom.css files so I could have them in one directory, and used samba so I could share that directory to windows for editing.

[sdetweil]

@BKeyport another cool idea!
I got 7 machines running all the time

[BKeyport]

@sdetweil bonus, with a bit of trickery, I’ve got that directory backing up as needed to GitHub under a private git. 😃

[retroflex]

For example if you use this for SSH:
https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/

…you can edit config files etc. on another machine and when you save it asks if you want to upload back to rpi.

[ruff.hi]

Thx all - lots of interesting suggestions to play around with.

I detached the 7" screen from the RPI and now mm won’t start.

0|mm       | (electron:30477): Gtk-WARNING **: 06:02:18.928: cannot open display: :0
0|mm       | npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
0|mm       | npm ERR! errno 1
0|mm       | npm ERR! magicmirror@2.13.0 start: `DISPLAY="${DISPLAY:=:0}" ./node_modules/.bin/electron js/electron.js`
0|mm       | npm ERR! Exit status 1
0|mm       | npm ERR!
0|mm       | npm ERR! Failed at the magicmirror@2.13.0 start script.
0|mm       | npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
0|mm       |
0|mm       | npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
0|mm       | npm ERR!     /home/pi/.npm/_logs/2020-10-24T10_02_18_961Z-debug.log

Is this something about having to start the magicmirror in server mode?

[ruff.hi]

google to the rescue … must remember to google the actual error message and not what you think the problem is.

I googled “rpi magic mirror cannot open display” and it displayed some posts about this very issue … one of them contained this suggestion …

Ok, there might be a problem with your electron installation.
Can you go into your MagicMirror folder and type “node serveronly”?

Then, go back to your browser window and type in “localhost:8080”

Jump over to the mm folder, mistype ‘note serveronly’ and then ‘node serveronly’ … and my mm is back :)

how to I make node serveronly permanent? Embed it in the mm.sh start script?

Edit: answer: that worked on reboot.

mm.sh now contains …

cd ./MagicMirror
DISPLAY=:0 npm start
node serveronly

[ruff.hi]

I’ve installed samba file sharing on my pi and managed to connect via my win10 machine … so now I can do away with the complicated method I was using to update sh files.

[sdetweil]

@ruff-hi if you turn on SSH on your pi, and then use WinScp or bitvise ssh clients, they give you a terminal window AND a filemanager view over the pi files… so you just click to edit, and both support drag/drop in both directions

[ruff.hi]

I have been playing with the AfterShip module and really liking this. The mm on my desktop screen reminds me of rainmeter … passive information display.