MMM-GoogleAssistant autostart

[poopyurinal]

I have been trying without success to get the MMM-GoogleAssistant module to autostart upon boot. I have followed so many tutorials down the rabbit hole I am not sure where I have ended up. I know that to start the module successfully, I can enter the following 3 commands:

source env/bin/activate
cd ~/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-GoogleAssistant/pi
python3 assistant.py

Every method I have tried to do this upon boot has failed. Can anyone provide a simple tutorial on how to do this via, well, ANY method? I am beyond newbie in Linux, but still very much a beginner. If you need more details about my assistant.py, please let me know. I am not particular to any one method as long as it works.

Thanks!

[sdetweil]

what is the reported problem? and where?

[poopyurinal]

I don’t get a reported problem (or don’t know where to look). I just don’t have an active module upon boot. Where can I look for a reported problem?

[sdetweil]

starting a pgm at boot

https://timleland.com/how-to-run-a-linux-program-on-startup/

you might need two? on the py and one the mirror app?

[sdetweil]

@poopyurinal so, does mirror app start? but assistant doesn’t work ? are you using pm2? to control Mirror autostart?

[sdetweil]

auto install script sets up a pm2 module to start mirror app

[poopyurinal]

yes, the mirror app starts flawlessly with all installed modules. The assistant icon appears on the mirror, but is not activated by “Ok google” unless I type the commands in my OP. I believe pm2 is controlling the Mirror autostart.

[sdetweil]

@poopyurinal ok, but if yoiu start it manually does it work?

pm2 stop MagicMirror
open a terminal window (ctrl-alt-t)
cd MagicMirror
npm start

does it all work?
I don’t know assistant.py I assume it runs in the background… and somehow talks to the module…

[sdetweil]

and with mirror running on boot, press ctrl-shit-i to open the developers window, and select the console tab, and scroll up to find any module errors

there is also a pm2 command to show its log… (I don’t use pm2 myself).

[sdetweil]

@poopyurinal said in MMM-GoogleAssistant autostart:

I know that to start the module successfully, I can enter the following 3 commands:
source env/bin/activate
cd ~/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-GoogleAssistant/pi
python3 assistant.py

you are not starting the module… you are starting a background application
that is included in the module folder

the ‘module’ only runs inside the MagicMirror environment

so, you need to create a command that does the startup…
start the py and then start MM

and then automate that

if u stop MM manually and restart it (without doing the assistant.py step) do the GA work thru mirror as u expect?

[poopyurinal]

pm2 stop MagicMirror gives me:

[PM2][ERROR] Process MagicMirror not found
┌──────┬────┬──────┬────────┬───┬─────┬──────────┐
│ Name │ id │ mode │ status │ ↺ │ cpu │ memory │
├──────┼────┼──────┼────────┼───┼─────┼──────────┤
│ mm │ 0 │ fork │ online │ 1 │ 0% │ 2.5 MB │
└──────┴────┴──────┴────────┴───┴─────┴──────────┘
Use pm2 show <id|name> to get more details about an app

Any thoughts? The MagicMirror is running. If I stop it by hitting Alt and closing it via the menu bar, it automatically restarts.

[sdetweil]

@poopyurinal pm2 list

[poopyurinal]

pm2 list
┌──────┬────┬──────┬────────┬───┬─────┬──────────┐
│ Name │ id │ mode │ status │ ↺ │ cpu │ memory │
├──────┼────┼──────┼────────┼───┼─────┼──────────┤
│ mm │ 0 │ fork │ online │ 1 │ 0% │ 2.5 MB │
└──────┴────┴──────┴────────┴───┴─────┴──────────┘
Use pm2 show <id|name> to get more details about an app

[sdetweil]

@poopyurinal pm2 stop mm

[poopyurinal]

pm2 stop mm
[PM2] Applying action stopProcessId on app [mm](ids: 0)
[PM2] mm ✓
┌──────┬────┬──────┬─────────┬───┬─────┬────────┐
│ Name │ id │ mode │ status │ ↺ │ cpu │ memory │
├──────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼───┼─────┼────────┤
│ mm │ 0 │ fork │ stopped │ 1 │ 0% │ 0 B │
└──────┴────┴──────┴─────────┴───┴─────┴────────┘
Use pm2 show <id|name> to get more details about an app

Sorry, limited by new user restriction of one post every 120 seconds

[sdetweil]

@poopyurinal cool now follow the link i gave about creating a service that will autostart and make it start the assitant.py

I don’t understand why the MMM-GoogleAssistant module doesn’t do this… it would be so easy…

[sdetweil]

in the link it asks for ‘your service name’ make that GoogleAssistant
the command is ‘/home/pi/MagicMirror/modulesMMM-GoogleAssistant/python3 assistant.py’

[sdetweil]

once u create the service… make sure assistant.py is not running already

ps -ef | grep assistant 

the 1st number on the output is the process id
pi xxxx yyyy etc…
then

sudo kill -9 xxxx

then do

sudo systemctl start GoogleAssistant

then

ps -ef | grep assistant 

to insure assistant is running
then start mirror manually with npm start

if all is good, reboot

service will start the assistant.py script
and pm2 will start mirror app

[poopyurinal]

Many thanks Sam! I’ll need to take a look at your suggestions tomorrow. I appreciate the quick (immediate!) help.

[sdetweil]

@poopyurinal no problem… let us know either way

i use the assistantmk2 module… don’t need that py file