MMM-GooglePhotos suddenly stopped working this morning

[sdetweil]

@Jabl0 i host my pics on a network share
i mount that share on my pi thru the /etc/fstab file
i mount it to a directory in the /media folder

sudo mkdir /media/fileserver

here server-share local-folder and user/passsword on the server

//ds-data/media /media/fileserver cifs username=xxx,password=yyy,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777

ImagePhotos uses the uploads folder in its directory

now i rename that out of the way and use a filesystem link to make uploads map to the mounted folder

cd ~/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-ImagePhotos
mv uploads upload-orig
sudo ln -s /media/fileserver uploads

then you’ve got it

the server folder will be auto mounted on boot
you may have to force remount if the server is rebooted

sudo mount -a

[sdetweil]

@Jabl0 i have a fork of ImagesPhotos that supports nested folders in the uploads folder

i also have a module that allows guests to upload pics from their phones to the uploads folder via qr code

https://github.com/sdetweil/uploadPics
this supports upload to any folder. so works w any module providing view from locally accessible folder

[JMac]

@sdetweil is this module dead in the water now?

It was the backbone of my entire MM, using Carousel the mirror nicely flipped between the family calendar and the google photos.

is there a work around still using this module or is it a case of finding an alternative? If the latter which is the best module to use for the same end result?

Sorry to hijack but didn’t want to start a whole new thread.
Cheers.

[sdetweil]

@JMac we dont know. selecting photos to share requires using their app it appears.

we dont know what that means for api access like we do for MagicMirror. someone will have to dig in and find out

the old way doesn’t work, so this module is non-functional currently

[Jabl0]

@sdetweil love all your solutions. This will keep me busy 😉 thanks again mate 🙌🏾

[Jabl0]

@sdetweil just to update you. Network share works great and the kids are loving the QR code :) So thank you.

One thing i have noticed this module doing that the MMM-GooglePhotos module did not do, is it just goes black with only the mouse curser showing. Nothing shows up in PM2 logs when this happens. I guess its because it runs from browser?

Anyway i can troubleshoot this and see what is causing it? Maybe my Pi is not powerful enough? Its a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.

See screenshot below:

Thanks :)

[sdetweil]

@Jabl0 are you using my fork of the module? there was a bug handling restarting if one of the images failed to load

when you have the black screen you might be able to open the developers window , ctrl-shift-i, select the console tab

also i think there is a
debug:true
config option which will show the whole flow of getting files and selecting a file to display in the output of npm start

if you install MMM-Logging or MMM-LogExt it will capture the browser console and merge w the npm start console

[Jabl0]

@sdetweil apologies but i am not sure what you mean by fork :( however, i am using this one https://github.com/roramirez/MMM-ImagesPhotos and i see you are a contributor on there?

I will give the recommended debugging log methods you have suggested and see what i can find.

Thank you.

[sdetweil]

@Jabl0 fork, means i have a copy too

https://github.com/sdetweil/MMM-ImagesPhotos

[Jabl0]

@sdetweil Ah, right! Learnt something new :) I am using the other one. One more thing, i did enable debugging yesterday and for some strange reason i have not seen the black screen since i have done this. Fingers crossed though.

I did see these errors:

Invalid SOS parameters for sequential JPEG

But the module kept running fine with no black screen.

I would like to use your version, will i have to completely remove the module and clone yours instead, or is there a quicker way to migrate?

Thanks.

[sdetweil]

@Jabl0 just rename the module folder out of the way
and install mine in its place. only change config for new parms if you want to use them

[Jabl0]

@sdetweil Legend! Thanks :)

[Jabl0]

said in MMM-GooglePhotos suddenly stopped working this morning:

@sdetweil Legend! Thanks :)

@sdetweil its been a few days and that black screen keeps persisting. Using your fork and the original one.

I am not seeing much from the logs, im keeping an eye on temperature as well. I do have over 3000 photos though. Dont know if that is an issue.

I’d appreciate if you can help me with this.

Let me know what i need to provide in order to be able to get this resolved.

Thanks :)

[sdetweil]

@Jabl0 did you add

debug:true,

to the module config, and add MMM-Logext

you should see logging where npm start is done

[Jabl0]

@sdetweil yes I did. That’s where have been checking the past few days and all the images load just fine, even when it goes black which why im baffled. Is there anything else I should be looking for in the logs?

I use pm2 logs to see the logs btw.

I also check in dmesg

[sdetweil]

@Jabl0 ok, good. ill relook thru the code, i had a similar problem with a similar module on another mirror platform, was an out of memory problem.

wont be able to get to that til this afternoon.

[Jabl0]

@sdetweil I appreciate it. It’s late my side anyway. I will check back in tomorrow.

[Jabl0]

@sdetweil just to give you an update. I increased my swap space from 512 to 2048.

Still same issue.

I am using a different module all together, MMM-BackgroundSlideshow.

Still same issue.

I am running my pi caseless now to stay in the normal temp range.

Still same issue.

I’m yet to monitor my RAM and CPU usage when it crashes, but I’m suspecting my Pi is not powerful enough to run these modules.

So I do not think there are any bugs in your code causing the black screen.

I will keep digging to see what is causing this. It was working fine when I was using the Google Photos module.

[sdetweil]

@Jabl0 thanks for the info,

there were two issues in older code

1. loaded too many images into browser, slow creep. this is working storage size. i think this is fixed, but the failure seems indicative
2. a bad image, which caused a hang but not black screen

i will add the memory space debugging to this module, will let you know for update

[sdetweil]

@Jabl0 well, making the debugger part work is a lot harder in this env…

but I can take memory snapshots thru the dev window UI and don’t see any dangling images…
I have it on 5 second cycle going thru 600 images…