Magic Mirror on the Raspberry Pi 1, agonizingly difficult

MMRPi1

I’ve got a progress bar that’s progressing slowly, hopefully it will work, though it ma take a while.
Updates to follow…

A Former User

@MMRPi1 good luck to you. :D

MMRPi1

Alright, it says Magic Mirror installation was successful, but I’m not sure what to do next…

MMRPi1

It worked!!
Thank you to everyone :-D
Now all that’s left is screensaver, autostart and all that…
Thanks again!

cowboysdude

@MMRPi1 Thank you for your patience! :) Glad you got it running now some advice…

IF you have a working config before you make ANY changes to it copy it to config.bak that way you’ll always have a GOOD working config file…

Good Luck!

Mykle1

@cowboysdude said in Magic Mirror on the Raspberry Pi 1, agonizingly difficult:

IF you have a working config before you make ANY changes to it copy it to config.bak that way you’ll always have a GOOD working config file…

This is excellent advice!

MMRPi1

@cowboysdude Thanks.
This is the situation:
The default config file is working (I have it backed up) though when I run it in server only the clock and weather work fine, but all the other modules say “Loading…”.
I did try to customise it, but got the “No config file”, so either I have syntax errors or the sources aren’t right…
Talking of, does anyone know of a list of compatible news feeds and the like?
Thanks again

A Former User

@MMRPi1
Can you show your config.js here? It makes easier.
If you got “no config file” however you have a confidence for config.js existence, you might make some syntax error in your config.js.

you can find newsfeed rss in most news sites.
If some site has links of “RSS”(or small orange squared antenna icon), you can use that url to your newsfeed.
By example, If you want to get news from “The Washington Post”, google “washington post rss”. Then the result pages direct you to WP rss page. get a link what you want, apply that to your news-feed module config.
Most of the RSS could be compatible with that module. Even RSS of personal blogs also.

Some browsers(Firefox, IE7…) support finding RSS on current page. You can see RSS mark in addressbar if current page has valid RSS link.

You can check the reference. (I doubt there are some missing links.)
https://www.repeatserver.com/RSSFeedList.aspx
http://www.uen.org/feeds/lists.shtml

MMRPi1

Good news!
The config file is (mostly) working (it needed a reboot) and I’ll configure it until I’m satisfied at which point I need to figure out how to keep it fullscreen, disable screen timeout and do the autostart and all that…
In the meantime, thanks to everyone for their help :-D

cowboysdude

@MMRPi1 said in Magic Mirror on the Raspberry Pi 1, agonizingly difficult:

Good news!
The config file is (mostly) working (it needed a reboot) and I’ll configure it until I’m satisfied at which point I need to figure out how to keep it fullscreen, disable screen timeout and do the autostart and all that…
In the meantime, thanks to everyone for their help :-D

You’re very welcome. :) Enjoy!

MMRPi1

Now the software is working I have a few more questions:
(Btw I’m running MM in serveronly mode in Chromium.)

How do I make MM auto run when the Pi turns on, disable screensaver and make it fullscreen?
Should I be concerned that the RPi gets quite hot in operation, especially as it will be in a frame and in constant operation.
Is it advisable to turn the raspberry pi off (and turn off the magic mirror) by switching it off at the mains, and if not how would I turn it off and on?

MMRPi1

Also, how do you rotate the screen??

A Former User

@MMRPi1
For autostart, read this
Don’t worry about heat unless overclocking. However you can add small pan and ventilatoin holes on your frame.
You can use cron for scheduly shutdown or reboot. But you cannot turn on RPI automatically. You need additional hardware for that. You can consider timer switch or outlet.

For display rotating, edit /boot/config.txt
Add
display_rotate=1

Mykle1

@MMRPi1 said in Magic Mirror on the Raspberry Pi 1, agonizingly difficult:

Also, how do you rotate the screen??

https://github.com/MichMich/MagicMirror/wiki/Configuring-the-Raspberry-Pi

Mykle1

@MMRPi1 said in Magic Mirror on the Raspberry Pi 1, agonizingly difficult:

Is it advisable to turn the raspberry pi off (and turn off the magic mirror) by switching it off at the mains, and if not how would I turn it off and on?

First, shutdown the Pi correctly. Once you’ve shutdown the Pi correctly you can pull the power cord, OR you can install some sort of power switch.

In my case, I simply used a mini power strip inside the mirror itself. Once I’ve shut down my Pi correctly, I simply reach under my mirror and hit the power switch on the mini power strip. This also powers down the fan that I have sitting on the Pi. When you’re ready to start your mirror again, you simply hit the power switch on the mini power strip again and everything comes back on.

ROMSY

This post is deleted!

MMRPi1

Hi again…
Everything works fine but I can’t get the mirror to auto run (in server only mode) at boot.
Any help would be appreciated…
(BTW I tried configuring the LXDE and boot files and all that)

bhepler

@MMRPi1 Did you try the pm2 route from the Auto Starting Magic Mirror? @Sean gave you the link a few days ago.

In your case, you’ll want to change the mm.sh script to start in server-only mode and then launch your web browser. If you really want to bulletproof your installation, you can create a separate script for the mirror in server-only mode and another for keeping the browser up & pointed at the correct location. Let PM2 manage both as separate processes.

MMRPi1

@bhepler Thanks, but since I’m really clueless I’m not quite sure what to do…
The contents of mm.sh
cd ~/MagicMirror
DISPLAY=:0 npm start
node serveronly
chromium-browser --noerrdialogs --disable-session-crashed-bubble -incognito --kiosk http://localhost:8080

I’'ve also got the following at the end of the LXDE autostart file
@pm2 start mm.sh

BTW: when I run pm2 start mm.sh from the terminal the mirror starts up just fine, so I don’t know why it doesn’t autostart properly…

bhepler

No problem. It’s confusing at first for just about everybody.

@MMRPi1 said in Magic Mirror on the Raspberry Pi 1, agonizingly difficult:

The contents of mm.sh
cd ~/MagicMirror
DISPLAY=:0 npm start
node serveronly
chromium-browser --noerrdialogs --disable-session-crashed-bubble -incognito --kiosk http://localhost:8080

Your script is attempting to start the Magic Mirror twice. DISPLAY=:0 npm start will start the mirror via electron. That line would normally blank the Pi’s screen, start up the MM process and display the interface. You probably want to remove this line.
The line node serveronly starts up the MM process as well, but only to provide the interface to web browsers. And your final line opens the web browser.

So. Try deleting the DISPLAY=:0 npm start line and then testing your script.

cd ~
./mm.sh

That should start the MM process and open up your web browser to the interface. Let us know how it goes!

I’'ve also got the following at the end of the LXDE autostart file
@pm2 start mm.sh

Yeah, delete that line.

BTW: when I run pm2 start mm.sh from the terminal the mirror starts up just fine, so I don’t know why it doesn’t autostart properly…

Oh. Easy enough to fix. Do just what you said, run pm2 start mm.sh. Once the browser is up, switch to the terminal on the pi and tell PM2 to save the current state. pm2 save. One you do that, PM2 should start with the pi and then start the MM process and your browser.

Edited to add: Did you run the pm2 startup and then copy & paste the command it gave as per the instructions?