Read the statement by Michael Teeuw here.
pm2 doesnt work with crontab
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@chrisfr1976 said in pm2 doesnt work with crontab:
find / -iname pm2
/usr/local/bin/pm2 /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2 /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/lib/templates/logrotate.d/pm2 /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/pm2 /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/.bin/pm2 /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2 /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/lib/templates/logrotate.d/pm2 /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/pm2Which is the true one and one to use?
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@plainbroke
Then use this:
/usr/local/bin/pm2 -
@chrisfr1976
@sdetweil
Thank you both for the help.
/usr/local/bin/pm2 restart mm
worked so I set it up to stop now and if (fingers crossed) works.
I am golden.
Wonder why I never had to use the full path before?
Maybe my pm2 path was /home/pi/pm2 before.
Doesn’t really matter as long as it works, I am a happy camper.
It works.
Thank you so much… I will mark this solved.
Well I would if I could… strange.By the way " which pm2 " shows the path that I needed to use in crontab -e
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@plainbroke awesome
i should have remembered the path problem
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@sdetweil
Did the new MM and or trixie change the way crontab works? Mine has stopped working since the update to 2.33. I tried again tonight and will see if the changes work or not… also my mm.json file quit working. Hind sight is 20/20 should have left well enough alone… -
@plainbroke I do not know
Sorry, I have to ask, you DID use a new sd card, right?
What does /var/log/syslog say about the crontab execution
Did you use crontab -e
Or sudo crontab -e1st is run as user who executed the crontab command
2nd is run as root -
@sdetweil
Using NVMe disk 256gb smallest I had on hand. 3 of them are exhibiting the same issues. I did try going back to Bookworm and I am still getthing a blank screen after a while. I ran npm run config:check it says all is good in the config.js ////
I am currently reloading from scratch.
Which OS is better for the 2.33 MM? 32 or 64 bit?
Wondering if I was using 32 bit and now the 64 bit is messing with me… So dang many things can mess with these little devices.I only use crontab -e, should I try sudo crontab -e
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@plainbroke no, without sudo is best
Maybe pm2 isn’t in the path when crontab fires
Check the syslog for crontab errors32 bit is about to be trouble.
The latest nodejs version, 24, has dropped builds for 32 bit
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@sdetweil
Thanks for the info I almost pulled down 32 bit.
It has been interesting to say the least going to trixie.
Turns out my problem was a failed NVMe drive.
I thought those things where supposed to last for a LONG long time…
I did get crontab -e to work with trixie and MM 2.33 not a fun ride, but entertaining. I finally learned how to use bash to make batch style files…
So not a complete loss of time… -
@plainbroke technology is SOOOO much fun! Simple, til it’s not!
Thanks for the feedback. Others will ask, I’m sure they could use your help!
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@sdetweil
Ok crontab -e worked last night to shutdown MM. So the pm2 stop all worked.
BUT this morning the pm2 restart mm did nothing.
I used find to get these:/home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/.bin/pm2 /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2 /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/lib/templates/logrotate.d/pm2 /home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/pm2/pm2 /usr/local/bin/pm2 /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2 /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/lib/templates/logrotate.d/pm2 /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/pm2ANY idea on which one would work better.?
Here is my current crontab -e# Turn off display at 9pm 00 21 * * 0-6 /usr/local/bin/pm2 stop all >/dev/null >2&1 # Turn on screen Monday - Friday at 6:45 am 45 06 * * 1-5 /usr/local/bin/pm2 start mm >/dev/null >2&1 # Turn on screen Saturday - Sunday at 7:30 am 30 07 * * 6,0 /usr/local/bin/pm2 start mm >/dev/null >2&1Slow learner. But trying anyways.
MM is on Raspberry Pi 4B w/8gb ram loaded on a 128gb nvme drive.
Running Trixie and the latest MM version. -
@plainbroke which one, if any , are in the path
Are they all executable?ls -laF
Will give you the permissions maskAre any of them links to another?
What changed?
/usr/local/bin/pm2
Should be the one -
@plainbroke also look in /var/log/syslog
To find the logging of the execute at the time it should fire -
@sdetweil
Weird, I do not have /var/log/syslog.
Even did a find for it nothing, popped up…pi@Pixie:~ $ ls -laF total 348 drwx------ 15 pi pi 4096 Nov 10 15:36 ./ drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Sep 30 19:18 ../ -rw------- 1 pi pi 9080 Nov 10 13:17 .bash_history -rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 220 Sep 30 19:06 .bash_logout -rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 3523 Sep 30 19:06 .bashrc drwx------ 13 pi pi 4096 Nov 7 18:22 .cache/ drwx------ 22 pi pi 4096 Nov 8 12:57 .config/ drwx------ 3 pi pi 4096 Nov 7 17:49 .dbus/ drwxrwxr-x 2 pi pi 4096 Sep 30 19:17 Desktop/ drwx------ 2 pi pi 4096 Nov 7 23:11 Documents/ -rw-rw-r-- 1 pi pi 0 Nov 7 20:00 .gitconfig -rw-rw-r-- 1 pi pi 81 Nov 7 18:24 .gtkrc-2.0 -rw-rw-r-- 1 pi pi 222126 Oct 27 18:52 install.log drwx------ 4 pi pi 4096 Sep 30 19:18 .local/ drwxrwxr-x 16 pi pi 4096 Nov 8 12:54 MagicMirror/ -rwxrwxrwx 1 pi pi 320 Jun 12 2022 mm.json* -rwxrwxrwx 1 pi pi 38 Jul 16 2023 mm.sh* drwx------ 4 pi pi 4096 Nov 6 21:05 .mozilla/ drwxrwxr-x 4 pi pi 4096 Oct 27 18:30 .npm/ drwx------ 3 pi pi 4096 Oct 27 18:52 .pki/ drwxrwxr-x 5 pi pi 4096 Nov 9 17:24 .pm2/ -rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 807 Sep 30 19:06 .profile -rw-rw-r-- 1 pi pi 66 Oct 27 19:22 .selected_editor drwxrwxr-x 4 pi pi 4096 Nov 10 15:43 shared/ -rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 0 Sep 30 19:18 .sudo_as_admin_successful drwx------ 3 pi pi 4096 Nov 5 17:30 .vnc/ -rw------- 1 pi pi 50 Nov 9 17:24 .Xauthority -rw------- 1 pi pi 8238 Nov 9 19:32 .xsession-errors -rw------- 1 pi pi 7945 Nov 9 17:24 .xsession-errors.old -
@plainbroke Instead of piping the output to a blackhole, maybe pipe it to a logfile which you can interrogate to see why the
pm2 startis not working? -
About /var/log/syslog.
Debian does not use that anymore, already since a while.
As far as I understand it, you will need to get familiar with journalctl.
For cron jobs try this:$ journalctl --since "1 hour ago" --unit cron.service $ journalctl -f -u cron.serviceHappy hunting.
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@evroom,
I get that nothing is found, when I run either of your suggestions.@mumblebaj
Explain piping, Please…Slow learner. But trying anyways.
MM is on Raspberry Pi 4B w/8gb ram loaded on a 128gb nvme drive.
Running Trixie and the latest MM version. -
@plainbroke piping is a technique of stitching together multiple commands to accomplish a task
The vertical bar is called the pipe character
Which takes the output of the left side and presents it as input to the right side , so its like forming a pipeWhen I want to find all the MagicMirror processes running in the background I do this
ps -efThis give the processes and the command line used to start them
But is a lot of dataSo I can filter that with grep , and I can pass in data on its stdin
ps -ef | grep -i MagicMirrorThat gives just the rows of the process list with MagicMirror on them
But if I want to kill them I need the process id on each row
That’s the second value on each row
I can use the awk command to get thatps -ef | grep -i MagicMirror | awk ‘{ print $2}’Now I have the process ids and can issue the kill command with them
ps -ef | grep -i MagicMirror | awk ‘{ print $2}’ | xargs sudo kill -9 -
@plainbroke said in pm2 doesnt work with crontab:
@evroom,
I get that nothing is found, when I run either of your suggestions.The
journalctl -fshows the current activities.
Simular totail -f <filename>.
So when there are none, you will see none.
Use that when you know that a cron job is going to occur anytime soon.
The--since "1 hour ago"searches for activities in the last hour.
Change to, for example--since "24 hours ago"for activities in the last 24 hours.
When nothing comes out, then indeed nothing happened (during the time period you are searching in).Other
--sinceoptions:"today" "00:20" "2025-11-12" "2025-11-12 07:30:00" -
@plainbroke Afternoon. What I was saying was that instead of sending your current output to a blackhole,
>/dev/null >2&1, i meant sending it to a log file:
30 07 * * 6,0 /usr/local/bin/pm2 start mm >> /home/pi/mon.log 2>&1. This will send the output of the command/usr/local/bin/ pm2 start mmto a log file residing at/home/pi/mof.log. You can then interrogate this log file to see if there were any errors when the command was executed.So, by pipe I meant redirect the output to somewhere.
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