RPI 3B keeps going to blank screen (cursor showing)

BigTJ

Hi all,
I’m having a big problem with my magic mirror. It looks as though my RPI 3B keeps going into screensave. After a while I get a black screen with a white arrow cursor.
I have gone through all the usual documented ways of turning off screen save ie
consoleblank=0 in cmdline.txt,
Screen Blanking’ option in the Raspberry Pi Configuration tool,
Xscreensaver is not installed,
Adding to /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart;-
@xset s noblank
@xset s off
@xset -dpms,
Adding to /etc/kbd/config;-
BLANK_TIME=0
POWERDOWN_TIME=0,
Adding to ~/.bashrc;- setterm -blank 0 -powerdown 0,
Adding to /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf;- xserver-command=X -s 0 -p 0 -dpms,
etc etc…

If I connect using VPN I still only see a black screen with cursor.

Any help with this really frustrating problem would be greatly appreciated.
@sdetweil - I found references to an old script of yours but could not access it to try it on my MM.

Thanks

BigTJ

sdetweil

@BigTJ see the screensaveroff script at the bottom of the page here
https://github.com/sdetweil/MagicMirror_scripts

BigTJ

@sdetweil
Many thanks

I ran your script with the following result;-

disable screensaver via gsettings was true and uint32 300
disable screensaver via lightdm.conf
lxsession screen saver already disabled

Does this mean the screensaver is already off or that the script has disabled the screensaver?

Thanks again

BigTJ

sdetweil

@BigTJ script has disabled

BigTJ

@sdetweil

Thanks for your help.

This has been a problem for a long time. The mirror is being used headless so having to restart over and over again has spoilt the usefulness of the mirror. Hopefully that is all sorted.

Will let you know after testing.

Thanks again.

BigTJ

BigTJ

@sdetweil Unfortunately I am still getting the black screen with mouse cursor.

I’ve installed a new OS from scratch and Installed a clean version of MM, installed the modules from scratch but the problem persists.

When the MM has gone to black screen I cannot use CtrlM to minimise the MM window but I can use CtrlR to force a re-read and this brings the MM back on. Any ideas what can be causing this?

Thanks

BigTJ

sdetweil

@BigTJ show the messages from where u start MagicMirror at the time of the failure

karsten13

@BigTJ

which modules have you installed?

BigTJ

@sdetweil Hi, the messages of note from starting MM are as below

setterm: terminal xterm-256color does not support --blank
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cd MagicMirror
pi@raspberrypi:~/MagicMirror $ npm start run

magicmirror@2.18.0 start
DISPLAY=“${DISPLAY:=:0}” ./node_modules/.bin/electron js/electron.js “run”

[24.08.2022 18:40.30.154] [LOG] Starting MagicMirror: v2.18.0
[24.08.2022 18:40.30.166] [LOG] Loading config …
[24.08.2022 18:40.30.198] [LOG] Loading module helpers …
[24.08.2022 18:40.30.206] [LOG] No helper found for module: alert.
[24.08.2022 18:40.31.907] [LOG] Initializing new module helper …
[24.08.2022 18:40.31.911] [LOG] Module helper loaded: MMM-Wallpaper
[24.08.2022 18:40.31.917] [LOG] No helper found for module: clock.
[24.08.2022 18:40.31.922] [LOG] No helper found for module: calendar_monthly.
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.330] [LOG] Initializing new module helper …
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.332] [LOG] Module helper loaded: calendar
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.336] [LOG] No helper found for module: weather.
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.341] [LOG] No helper found for module: MMM-WiFiPassword.
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.421] [LOG] Initializing new module helper …
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.422] [LOG] Module helper loaded: newsfeed
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.425] [LOG] All module helpers loaded.
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.697] [LOG] Starting server on port 8080 …
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.740] [LOG] Server started …
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.743] [LOG] Connecting socket for: MMM-Wallpaper
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.745] [LOG] Starting node helper for: MMM-Wallpaper
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.746] [LOG] Connecting socket for: calendar
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.748] [LOG] Starting node helper for: calendar
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.749] [LOG] Connecting socket for: newsfeed
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.750] [LOG] Starting node helper for: newsfeed
[24.08.2022 18:40.32.751] [LOG] Sockets connected & modules started …
[24.08.2022 18:40.33.378] [LOG] Launching application.
[24055:0824/184036.476041:ERROR:viz_main_impl.cc(161)] Exiting GPU process due to errors during initialization
[24096:0824/184036.932766:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(376)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.
[24.08.2022 18:40.40.506] [LOG] Create new calendarfetcher for url: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/*********gmail.com/private-*********/basic.ics - Interval: 3000000
[24.08.2022 18:40.40.693] [LOG] Create new calendarfetcher for url: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/*********gmail.com/private-*********/basic.ics - Interval: 3000000
[24.08.2022 18:40.40.703] [LOG] Create new newsfetcher for url: http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/uk/rss.xml - Interval: 300000

[24.08.2022 23:05.55.239] [INFO] Newsfeed-Fetcher: Broadcasting 38 items.
[24067:0824/230903.755884:ERROR:broker_posix.cc(46)] Received unexpected number of handles
[24.08.2022 23:10.55.583] [INFO] Newsfeed-Fetcher: Broadcasting 38 items.

I don’t know exactly when the black screen occurred.
Hope this helps

Thanks BigTJ

BigTJ

@karsten13 The modules of the MM are listed below in shortened form. Thanks for your interest.

“alert”
“updatenotification”
“MMM-Wallpaper”
“clock”
“calendar_monthly”
“calendar”
header: “Steve’s Upcoming Items”
“MMM-GoogleSheets”
“calendar”
— header: “Angela’s Upcoming Items”
“weather”
— position: “top_left”
— header: "Currently: "
— location: “Doncaster”
“weather”,
— position: “top_left”
— header: “Forecast”
— location: “Doncaster”
“weather”,
— position: “top_left”
— header: “Forecast”
— location: “Pickering”
‘MMM-WiFiPassword’
“newsfeed”

karsten13

@BigTJ

I asked because I had problems with some modules which needed to much memory which results also in a black screen with white cursor.

You could try to run without the 3 foreign modules to see if the problem persists.

BigTJ

@karsten13

I have another MM running on a Pi 4B that uses all the same modules without a problem.

But I will give your suggestion a try. Thanks for the tip

Big TJ

BigTJ

@sdetweil Hi,
Were the displayed messages of any help in narrowing down the issue?

BigTj

sdetweil

@BigTJ said in RPI 3B keeps going to blank screen (cursor showing):

4067:0824/230903.755884:ERROR:broker_posix.cc(46)] Received unexpected number of handles

this is the error

we don’t really know the cause.
u can try disabling the use of gpu

change package.json line to look like this

		"start": "DISPLAY=\"${DISPLAY:=:0}\" ./node_modules/.bin/electron --disable-gpu js/electron.js",

BigTJ

@sdetweil Thanks for the suggestion.

I’ll give it a go and let you know if it is successful.

BigTJ

BigTJ

@sdetweil Hi, I have changed the line as your suggestion.
The mirror screen is still going blank after a short random period of time.

I have installed the ‘example’ mirror as per your suggestion to a previous query. The mirror works OK and (appears) not to go to black screen. Currently I am commenting out each module in config.js to try to identify if it is a particular module that is causing the problem.

My original set up uses the Calendar module twice (for 2 different users). Is this a possible cause of the problem? ie do I need to have independent modules one per user?

The following lines occur each time I start the mirror. Could this be relevant to my problem?

“[24055:0824/184036.476041:ERROR:viz_main_impl.cc(161)] Exiting GPU process due to errors during initialization
[24096:0824/184036.932766:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(376)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.”

Thanks

sdetweil

@BigTJ if u did --disable-gpu, then u shouldnt be getting those messages

u can use all the default modules multiple times

when the screen goes black, does the mouse work? does it wake up?

BigTJ

@sdetweil Thanks for the response

I amended the package.json as follows;-

“start”: “DISPLAY="${DISPLAY:=:0}" ./node_modules/.bin/electron --disable-gpu js/electron.js”,
“start:dev”: “DISPLAY="${DISPLAY:=:0}" ./node_modules/.bin/electron --disable-gpu js/electron.js”,

Is this correct?

Yes the mouse still works. Cursor is a black arrow with a white outline. No it does wake up.
Control M works
Control R Works
Control Q works

The start up report of the mirror with minimal content shows;-

magicmirror@2.18.0 start
DISPLAY=“${DISPLAY:=:0}” ./node_modules/.bin/electron --disable-gpu js/electron.js “run”

[11.10.2022 11:45.29.988] [LOG] Starting MagicMirror: v2.18.0
[11.10.2022 11:45.30.003] [LOG] Loading config …
[11.10.2022 11:45.30.030] [LOG] Loading module helpers …
[11.10.2022 11:45.31.926] [LOG] Initializing new module helper …
[11.10.2022 11:45.31.930] [LOG] Module helper loaded: MMM-Wallpaper
[11.10.2022 11:45.31.935] [LOG] No helper found for module: weather.
[11.10.2022 11:45.31.936] [LOG] All module helpers loaded.
[11.10.2022 11:45.32.214] [LOG] Starting server on port 8080 …
[11.10.2022 11:45.32.258] [LOG] Server started …
[11.10.2022 11:45.32.261] [LOG] Connecting socket for: MMM-Wallpaper
[11.10.2022 11:45.32.268] [LOG] Starting node helper for: MMM-Wallpaper
[11.10.2022 11:45.32.270] [LOG] Sockets connected & modules started …
[11.10.2022 11:45.32.942] [LOG] Launching application.
[6000:1011/114533.695740:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(376)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.

Any further ideas?

Thanks for your continued assistance

BigTJ

@sdetweil
Hi,
Did you have any further thoughts on this problem?

sdetweil

@BigTJ no. not really. 2.18 is fairly old and we have upgraded electron in each of the last releases

I would use my upgrade script, see
https://github.com/sdetweil/MagicMirror_scripts

it will complain about package.json as we made the disable-gpu change

so restore it first, before running the upgrade

cd ~/MagicMirror 
git checkout package.json

there is a new way to disable gpu use without editing that package.json file

edit the ~/MagicMirror/installers/mm.sh

and add

export ELECTRON_DISABLE_GPU

before the npm start line