How to Get MagicMirror to Run on a Raspberry Pi Zero W Rev 1.1

Late-May 2024

Huge thanks to @sdetweil for all his help!

---

1. Flash card with Legacy 32-bit.
2. Connect via ssh to run script:

   bash -c  "$(curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sdetweil/MagicMirror_scripts/master/raspberry.sh)"
   

   Answer yes to disable screen saver and use pm2 questions.

3. Remove chromium with:

   sudo apt-get remove chromium-browser
   sudo apt autoremove
   

4. Add Firefox with:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install firefox-esr
   

5. Enable VNC using GUI (Interface Options):

   sudo raspi-config

6. Connect via TigerVNC (Apple app)
7. Edit installers/mm.sh via VNC using Pi's baked-in text editor by adding:

   cd ~/MagicMirror
   export external_browser=firefox
   DISPLAY=:0 npm start
   

8. Execute fix'em-up script:

   bash -c "$(curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sdetweil/MagicMirror_scripts/master/fixuppm2.sh)"
   

9. cd ~/MagicMirror/
   pm2 start MagicMirror
   

10. sudo reboot

Note: On my Pi Zero W it takes a solid ten minutes from reboot to actually seeing MM output via HDMI.

@sdetweil I understand what you’re saying about fixing the Jeopardy module, but I really think that’s secondary to not getting MM to run in the first place (and it not starting as a service on boot). Once I get MM running reliably in the first place I will play around with modules. :-)

`@sdetweil Sadly that didn’t seem to work at all.

pm2 flush gave me:

[PM2] Spawning PM2 daemon with pm2_home=/home/dvg/.pm2
[PM2] PM2 Successfully daemonized
[PM2] Flushing /home/dvg/.pm2/pm2.log
[PM2] Logs flushed

Then pm2 status gave me:

┌────┬────────────────────┬──────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ id │ name               │ mode     │ ↺    │ status    │ cpu      │ memory   │
├────┼────────────────────┼──────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ 0  │ MagicMirror        │ fork     │ 0    │ online    │ 23.3%    │ 40.3mb   │
└────┴────────────────────┴──────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┘

Then I did cd ~/MagicMirror/ and ran npm start which spit out this:

> magicmirror@2.27.0 start
> ./run-start.sh $1

[2024-05-29 23:08:58.949] [LOG] Starting MagicMirror: v2.27.0
[2024-05-29 23:08:59.437] [LOG] Loading config ...
[2024-05-29 23:08:59.497] [LOG] config template file not exists, no envsubst
[2024-05-29 23:09:07.135] [LOG] Loading module helpers ...
[2024-05-29 23:09:07.356] [LOG] No helper found for module: alert.
[2024-05-29 23:09:36.395] [LOG] Initializing new module helper ...
[2024-05-29 23:09:36.558] [LOG] Module helper loaded: updatenotification
[2024-05-29 23:09:36.688] [LOG] No helper found for module: clock.
[2024-05-29 23:10:00.038] [LOG] Initializing new module helper ...
[2024-05-29 23:10:00.109] [LOG] Module helper loaded: calendar
[2024-05-29 23:10:00.684] [ERROR] Whoops! There was an uncaught exception... 
[2024-05-29 23:10:01.570] [ERROR] Error: Cannot find module 'request'
Require stack:
- /home/dvg/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-JEOPARDY/node_helper.js
- /home/dvg/MagicMirror/js/app.js
- /home/dvg/MagicMirror/serveronly/index.js
    at Module._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1048:15)
    at Module._resolveFilename (/home/dvg/MagicMirror/node_modules/module-alias/index.js:49:29)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:901:27)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1115:19)
    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:130:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/dvg/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-JEOPARDY/node_helper.js:8:17)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1241:14)
    at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1295:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1091:32)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:938:12)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1115:19)
    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:130:18)
    at loadModule (/home/dvg/MagicMirror/js/app.js:183:19)
    at loadModules (/home/dvg/MagicMirror/js/app.js:213:10)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async App.start (/home/dvg/MagicMirror/js/app.js:261:3) {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: [
    '/home/dvg/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-JEOPARDY/node_helper.js',
    '/home/dvg/MagicMirror/js/app.js',
    '/home/dvg/MagicMirror/serveronly/index.js'
  ]
} 
[2024-05-29 23:10:01.664] [ERROR] MagicMirror² will not quit, but it might be a good idea to check why this happened. Maybe no internet connection? 
[2024-05-29 23:10:01.745] [ERROR] If you think this really is an issue, please open an issue on GitHub: https://github.com/MagicMirrorOrg/MagicMirror/issues 
[2024-05-29 23:12:53.308] [INFO] System information:
### SYSTEM: manufacturer: Raspberry Pi Foundation; model: Raspberry Pi Zero W Rev 1.1; raspberry: [object Object]; virtual: false
### OS: platform: linux; distro: Raspbian GNU/Linux; release: 11; arch: arm; kernel: 6.1.21+
### VERSIONS: electron: undefined; used node: 20.8.0; installed node: 20.8.0; npm: 10.1.0; pm2: 5.4.0
### OTHER: timeZone: America/New_York; ELECTRON_ENABLE_GPU: undefined
Starting chromium browser now, have patience, it takes a minute
Chromium_browser not installed

This all seemed pointless, but I ran pm2 restart 0 anyway and got this:

Use --update-env to update environment variables
[PM2] Applying action restartProcessId on app [0](ids: [ '0' ])
[PM2] [MagicMirror](0) ✓
┌────┬────────────────────┬──────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ id │ name               │ mode     │ ↺    │ status    │ cpu      │ memory   │
├────┼────────────────────┼──────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ 0  │ MagicMirror        │ fork     │ 47   │ online    │ 0%       │ 23.5mb   │
└────┴────────────────────┴──────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┘

At this point I’m going to give up and go back to square one and flash the drive again and start over. Ugh.

@sdetweil Okay! I’m doing this right now and will keep you posted. THANK YOU AGAIN.

@sdetweil Am I wrong about this? It actually appears that ‘electron’ is the missing module. But that’s not in /modules it’s in /js … Do I follow the same npm init steps to get it?

@sdetweil Ah. I see that. But … I don’t think the Jeopardy module is the main problem here. I’d prefer to simply remove that and try to get back to where I can even get MM to run in the first place; then I’ll screw around with adding modules. As it is I still can’t get MM to even run at all (plus all the restarts).

@sdetweil Oh. I thought the alert module was also indicating it was missing. Okay, I’ve tried npm init -y inside the MMM-Jeopardy dir, too, now.

pm2 status gives me:

┌────┬────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──────────┬────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ id │ name           │ namespace   │ version │ mode    │ pid      │ uptime │ ↺    │ status    │ cpu      │ mem      │ user     │ watching │
├────┼────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ 0  │ MagicMirror    │ default     │ 2.27.0  │ fork    │ 1865     │ 11s    │ 28   │ online    │ 21.4%    │ 38.6mb   │ dvg      │ disabled │
└────┴────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘

And now a subsequent pm2 start MagicMirror gives me:

[PM2] Applying action restartProcessId on app [MagicMirror](ids: [ 0 ])
[PM2] [MagicMirror](0) ✓
[PM2] Process successfully started
┌────┬────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──────────┬────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ id │ name           │ namespace   │ version │ mode    │ pid      │ uptime │ ↺    │ status    │ cpu      │ mem      │ user     │ watching │
├────┼────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ 0  │ MagicMirror    │ default     │ 2.27.0  │ fork    │ 1986     │ 0s     │ 34   │ online    │ 0%       │ 22.6mb   │ dvg      │ disabled │
└────┴────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘

But there’s still nothing displaying (aside from the generic Pi OS desktop, I mean).

@sdetweil So, because I am relentless, I rebooted to see if that would help. It didn’t, but now it looks like I have a different problem altogether:

cd MagicMirror/
pm2 start MagicMirror
[PM2] Spawning PM2 daemon with pm2_home=/home/dvg/.pm2
[PM2] PM2 Successfully daemonized
[PM2][ERROR] Script not found: /home/dvg/MagicMirror/MagicMirror

@sdetweil Hmmm. Okay. I tried that for the ‘alert’ module but it didn’t seem to have any impact:

dvg@hyperspace:~/MagicMirror $ cd modules/
dvg@hyperspace:~/MagicMirror/modules $ ls
default  MMM-JEOPARDY
dvg@hyperspace:~/MagicMirror/modules $ cd default/
dvg@hyperspace:~/MagicMirror/modules/default $ ls
alert  calendar  clock  compliments  defaultmodules.js  helloworld  newsfeed  updatenotification  utils.js  weather
dvg@hyperspace:~/MagicMirror/modules/default $ cd alert
dvg@hyperspace:~/MagicMirror/modules/default/alert $ ls package.json
ls: cannot access 'package.json': No such file or directory
dvg@hyperspace:~/MagicMirror/modules/default/alert $ npm init -y
Wrote to /home/dvg/MagicMirror/modules/default/alert/package.json:

{
  "name": "alert",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "The alert module is one of the default modules of the MagicMirror². This module displays notifications from other modules.",
  "main": "alert.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC"
}


dvg@hyperspace:~/MagicMirror/modules/default/alert $ cd ..
dvg@hyperspace:~/MagicMirror/modules/default $ cd ..
dvg@hyperspace:~/MagicMirror/modules $ cd ..
dvg@hyperspace:~/MagicMirror $ pm2 start MagicMirror
[PM2] Applying action restartProcessId on app [MagicMirror](ids: [ 0 ])
[PM2] [MagicMirror](0) ✓
[PM2] Process successfully started
┌────┬────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──────────┬────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ id │ name           │ namespace   │ version │ mode    │ pid      │ uptime │ ↺    │ status    │ cpu      │ mem      │ user     │ watching │
├────┼────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ 0  │ MagicMirror    │ default     │ 2.27.0  │ fork    │ 16303    │ 0s     │ 744  │ online    │ 0%       │ 18.5mb   │ dvg      │ disabled │
└────┴────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘

Same result; just a bunch more restarts and nothing appearing. (The Pi desktop is there, though.)

@sdetweil I followed your tutorial on adding the Jeopardy module (just to see what would happen) and it worked fine. The last step is npm start and when I did that I got this:

> magicmirror@2.27.0 start
> ./run-start.sh $1

[2024-05-29 10:30:09.649] [LOG] Starting MagicMirror: v2.27.0
[2024-05-29 10:30:10.200] [LOG] Loading config ...
[2024-05-29 10:30:10.267] [LOG] config template file not exists, no envsubst
[2024-05-29 10:30:19.159] [LOG] Loading module helpers ...
[2024-05-29 10:30:19.394] [LOG] No helper found for module: alert.
[2024-05-29 10:30:53.041] [LOG] Initializing new module helper ...
[2024-05-29 10:30:53.066] [LOG] Module helper loaded: updatenotification
[2024-05-29 10:30:53.220] [LOG] No helper found for module: clock.
[2024-05-29 10:31:18.754] [LOG] Initializing new module helper ...
[2024-05-29 10:31:18.854] [LOG] Module helper loaded: calendar
[2024-05-29 10:31:19.537] [ERROR] Whoops! There was an uncaught exception... 
[2024-05-29 10:31:20.316] [ERROR] Error: Cannot find module 'request'
Require stack:
- /home/dvg/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-JEOPARDY/node_helper.js
- /home/dvg/MagicMirror/js/app.js
- /home/dvg/MagicMirror/serveronly/index.js
    at Module._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1048:15)
    at Module._resolveFilename (/home/dvg/MagicMirror/node_modules/module-alias/index.js:49:29)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:901:27)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1115:19)
    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:130:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/dvg/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-JEOPARDY/node_helper.js:8:17)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1241:14)
    at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1295:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1091:32)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:938:12)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1115:19)
    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:130:18)
    at loadModule (/home/dvg/MagicMirror/js/app.js:183:19)
    at loadModules (/home/dvg/MagicMirror/js/app.js:213:10)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async App.start (/home/dvg/MagicMirror/js/app.js:261:3) {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: [
    '/home/dvg/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-JEOPARDY/node_helper.js',
    '/home/dvg/MagicMirror/js/app.js',
    '/home/dvg/MagicMirror/serveronly/index.js'
  ]
} 
[2024-05-29 10:31:20.470] [ERROR] MagicMirror² will not quit, but it might be a good idea to check why this happened. Maybe no internet connection? 
[2024-05-29 10:31:20.593] [ERROR] If you think this really is an issue, please open an issue on GitHub: https://github.com/MagicMirrorOrg/MagicMirror/issues 
[2024-05-29 10:34:40.779] [INFO] System information:
### SYSTEM: manufacturer: Raspberry Pi Foundation; model: Raspberry Pi Zero W Rev 1.1; raspberry: [object Object]; virtual: false
### OS: platform: linux; distro: Raspbian GNU/Linux; release: 11; arch: arm; kernel: 6.1.21+
### VERSIONS: electron: undefined; used node: 20.8.0; installed node: 20.8.0; npm: 10.1.0; pm2: 5.4.0
### OTHER: timeZone: America/New_York; ELECTRON_ENABLE_GPU: undefined
Starting chromium browser now, have patience, it takes a minute
Chromium_browser not installed

FYI: There is definitely an internet connection, so we can rule that out. Otherwise I have no idea.

@sdetweil If you thought 148 restarts was bad … This is what I see now:

pm2 start MagicMirror
[PM2] Applying action restartProcessId on app [MagicMirror](ids: [ 0 ])
[PM2] [MagicMirror](0) ✓
[PM2] Process successfully started
┌────┬────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──────────┬────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ id │ name           │ namespace   │ version │ mode    │ pid      │ uptime │ ↺    │ status    │ cpu      │ mem      │ user     │ watching │
├────┼────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ 0  │ MagicMirror    │ default     │ 2.27.0  │ fork    │ 14132    │ 0s     │ 659  │ online    │ 0%       │ 20.8mb   │ dvg      │ disabled │
└────┴────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘

@sdetweil It’s frustrating because I swear it was working before I rebooted.

@sdetweil I emailed you the output from that. I’m guessing Error: Cannot find module 'electron' is bad?

@sdetweil It looks like I spoke too soon. After a reboot, I cannot seem to get any output from MagicMirror.
I rebooted and then called pm2 start MagicMirror from within the MagicMirror directory, and it seems to execute just fine. But … nothing happens. It doesn’t actually start the app, as far as I can tell. Even though the output seems the same:

[PM2] Applying action restartProcessId on app [MagicMirror](ids: [ 0 ])
[PM2] [MagicMirror](0) ✓
[PM2] Process successfully started
┌────┬────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──────────┬────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ id │ name           │ namespace   │ version │ mode    │ pid      │ uptime │ ↺    │ status    │ cpu      │ mem      │ user     │ watching │
├────┼────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ 0  │ MagicMirror    │ default     │ 2.27.0  │ fork    │ 4592     │ 1s     │ 148  │ online    │ 0%       │ 27.4mb   │ dvg      │ disabled │
└────┴────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘

Any ideas?

@sdetweil I’m an Apple user. I am sure there’s something similar, though. Thanks.

@sdetweil I am not going to bother sending you the install log because it worked!

It took a long time to launch, but now I can see MagicMirror running when I VNC into the Pi.

After running your fixuppm2 script I executed pm2 start MagicMirror and got this:

[PM2] Applying action restartProcessId on app [MagicMirror](ids: [ 0 ])
[PM2] [MagicMirror](0) ✓
[PM2] Process successfully started
┌────┬────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──────────┬────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ id │ name           │ namespace   │ version │ mode    │ pid      │ uptime │ ↺    │ status    │ cpu      │ mem      │ user     │ watching │
├────┼────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ 0  │ MagicMirror    │ default     │ 2.27.0  │ fork    │ 28553    │ 0s     │ 2    │ online    │ 0%       │ 2.5mb    │ dvg      │ disabled │
└────┴────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘

Now when I VNC into the Pi I see it running! So far the date and time is the only thing correctly displaying, but at least now MagicMirror is running. Thank you!

@sdetweil Here’s what I got after running your fixup script:

[PM2] Applying action restartProcessId on app [MagicMirror](ids: [ 0 ])
[PM2] [MagicMirror](0) ✓
┌────┬────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──────────┬────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ id │ name           │ namespace   │ version │ mode    │ pid      │ uptime │ ↺    │ status    │ cpu      │ mem      │ user     │ watching │
├────┼────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ 0  │ MagicMirror    │ default     │ 2.27.0  │ fork    │ 27952    │ 0s     │ 1    │ online    │ 0%       │ 2.5mb    │ dvg      │ enabled  │
└────┴────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘
[PM2] Saving current process list...
[PM2] Successfully saved in /home/dvg/.pm2/dump.pm2

I’ll email install.log to you as soon as I can figure out how to … find and copy the install log.

@sdetweil Okay. I’m doing this right now.

1. Flashed card with Legacy 32-bit.
2. Connected via ssh to run your script.

   bash -c  "$(curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sdetweil/MagicMirror_scripts/master/raspberry.sh)"
   

   Answered yes to disable screen saver and use pm2 questions.

3. Removed chromium with:

   sudo apt-get remove chromium-browser
   sudo apt autoremove
   

4. Added Firefox with:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install firefox-esr
   

5. Enabled VNC using sudo raspi-config GUI
6. Connect via TigerVNC
7. Edit mm.sh via VNC in Pi's baked-in text editor by adding:

   cd ~/MagicMirror
   export external_browser=firefox
   DISPLAY=:0 npm start
   

8. sudo reboot

9. Connect via ssh

10. cd MagicMirror
    pm2 start MagicMirror
    

11. And now -- finally! -- some progress:

    [PM2] Spawning PM2 daemon with pm2_home=/home/dvg/.pm2
    [PM2] PM2 Successfully daemonized
    [PM2][ERROR] Script not found: /home/dvg/MagicMirror/MagicMirror
    

So … now what have I done wrong? What script is missing?

@sdetweil said in Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W for Magic Mirror:

flash the sd card… its a pi02W, a 3 in pi0 form factor

I’m sorry but I don’t understand what this means. Which PiOS should I flash? I have been trying with the Legacy, 32-bit.

(If it makes a difference, I actually have a Raspberry Pi Zero W Rev 1.1. I don’t think it’s a 2.)

Thank you!

@sdetweil I am ripping my hair out trying to get MM running on a Pi Zero W. I’ve followed all of your (super helpful) suggestions across multiple posts, but no matter what I do, I keep getting:

[PM2][ERROR] File ecosystem.config.js not found

any time I try to execute pm2 start.

I’ve run your upgrade / update scripts from github, I’ve removed Chromium and replaced it with Firefox, I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled ten different flavors of the PiOS, I’ve tried the MagicMirrorOS that someone else posted, etc. All with no luck.

Do you have any ideas what could be the problem here?

Thanks in advance,
dvg