Brand New Install works until I enable PM2 Autostart

[cowlam]

Hi All,

Newbie here having an issue with new installs where everything works perfectly following the official installation instructions (https://docs.magicmirror.builders/getting-started/installation.html) until I implement PM2.

I am using Bookworm 64bit desktop on a 3A+ with a 32gb SD. Running “npm run start” launches Magic Mirror on the desktop and all is good.

But as soon as I try to autostart (https://docs.magicmirror.builders/configuration/autostart.html#using-pm2) when it launches, it is actually launching an empty black Electron app on the desktop. If I close that app then the Magic Mirror 2 app launches and runs fine. It’s completely weird. I have run through this from scratch 3 times and the same issue each time.

Any help is much appreciated.

Anthony

[sdetweil]

@cowlam did you do these steps?

https://docs.magicmirror.builders/configuration/autostart.html#using-pm2

if YOU execute mm.sh does it open MM?

so, if you do

pm2 status

then

pm2 remove 0
pm2 save

then resume the steps

pm2 start mm.sh

if it starts then

pm2 save

or , you can use my scripts. (remove the entry in pm2 first so you don’t get two)

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

the last script on that page will setup pm2 to launch mm

[cowlam]

@sdetweil Thank You for the suggestions.

It launches correctly with “pm2 start mm.sh”.
But when I then run “pm2 save” and stop mm and start it again it launches the black Electron screen.
So I then remove it (had to run “pm2 del 0”), and save (pm2 save --force).
Then I ran “pm2 start mm.sh” again.
I then ran “pm2 stop mm”.
Then I ran “pm2 save”.
I can successfully run “pm2 start mm.sh” after that providing I saved it in the stopped state.
But that means when the pi reboots it isn’t started automatically.

[sdetweil]

@cowlam don’t do the pm2 stop

pm2 start mm.sh
pm2 save

then pm2 restart 0 (or mm), pm2 status will show you the managed apps…
can address by number or name or all (if u want to affect all apps)

[cowlam]

@sdetweil

pm2 start mm.sh
Magic Mirror launches successfully

pm2 save
pm2 restart 0 (can confirm that is the correct id from pm2 status - only one entry which is mm)
Magic Mirror is closed down… and an black Electron window opens and does not change ever after several minutes.
If I right-click the Electron window and close it, after a few seconds the Magic Mirror launches successfully again on its own.

[sdetweil]

@cowlam weird…

can you reboot and tell what happens

can u show the mm.sh

[cowlam]

@sdetweil
After my last post I ran pm2 restart 0 and it restarted MM correctly.
But after I rebooted it was back to launching the black Electron screen.

mm.sh looks like this:

cd ./MagicMirror
DISPLAY=:0 npm start

[sdetweil]

@cowlam can u change the cd line to

cd ~/MagicMirror

the one u have is MagicMirror from here (.)
not MagicMirror from user home (~)

also the pm2 status line has a column with a circled arrow header, that is restarts
and after 5 rapid it stops

I suspect the cd doesn’t work, mm doesn’t start,
but the saved info says u need electron started.

[BKeyport]

@sdetweil Sam: Just to let you know, if PM2 is not running any tasks, it won’t save with a plain pm2 save - you have to use pm2 save --force to clear the list after deleting everything.