Finally resolved my black screen issue!
After replacing the Pi 3B, the SD card, the OS, using the latest MM software, much internet searching and a great deal of help through this forum it appears the problem is being caused by the jpg photos being added to the wallpaper module. Changing the photos from large tif files into jpg files using Adobe lightroom creates a highly compressed jpg file that the wallpaper module cannot deal with properly.
Reducing the resolution of the files during the conversion seems to create a less compressed jpg file that the Wallpaper module can deal with.
Hope this helps others with the same issue.

@sdetweil
Thanks for all your efforts and assistance. After many reloads of the OS and the MM software I still have the same issue. After searching for similar Pi problems outside of MM it appears that this can happen due to hardware failure. I am now going to purchase a new pi and start from the beginning. Will report back on success or failure in due course. Thanks to everyone that has offered help and assistance.

BigTJ

@sdetweil
I’ll give that a go in the next few days.
Thanks

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

@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

@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 Thanks for the suggestion.

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

BigTJ

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

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

@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”

@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

@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

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

@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

Re: new script for screensaver disable

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

Hi,

I’ve been using this app and module for a few months. When it works it’s great. There was an issue a few weeks ago when the HTTPS connections no longer worked due to problem with a verifying site. This was resolved by another Bring user to use HHTP connections instead and has worked until the last few weeks. Now the module does not work at all although the app still works well. Apparently the app does not have an official API and the owners have changed the way the app and data works together. I do not have sufficient knowledge of node.js to begin to resolve this issue and have therefore resorted to using the google sheets module as a reminder list. it’s not as easy to use but it is reliable and uses the google official API.
Hope this is informative and possibly helpful.

Hi, I have been experiencing similar errors. I can live with the errors as suggested but the error stops my wallpaper module from displaying my list list of background pictures. The current picture does not change following an error with the calendar. Can the error somehow be prevented from affecting other modules?
Help would be greatly appreciated…