Your suggestion incorporates multiple changes, though… Stopping Electron and Starting Chromium while also changing the operating mode. No?
I’ve changed the config.js to both
serverOnly: true,
and
serverOnly:"true",
and neither one prevents Electron from starting.
I’ve now also tried
serverOnly:true,
Understood that there isn’t new software installed, but this would mean no additional software actively running on the Pi (Electron would be stopped, and all browser software would be running from a different machine).
Would that be any different than running it in server mode and accessing it from a browser on my computer across the network? That would be simpler to set up and wouldn’t add more running software onto the Pi…
Thought I would update this…
Still broken.
I have the latest MM as a fresh install on a brand new RPi with a new power adapter, using a brand new SDCard, connected to a different monitor, using a different HDMI cable, and it’s all plugged in to an outlet at an entirely different house in a different area of the state (different sections of the grid). I have the same few, basic modules installed and have added the photos module discussed here. It crashes and hangs randomly with “out of memory” errors just like the other one.
The only thing the same between the two is the photo collection. I’ve not found any consistency in the past on it failing with any specific photos so troubleshooting this seems like it’s going to be impossible.
Most monitors are IPS panels while most TV’s are VA panels. IPS has wider viewing angles with consistent color. The VA panels have better refresh rates for motion (which is not commonly needed for something like a mirror).
TV’s can be an easy choice because they can be much more available and a remote could be useful. A monitor will generally make for a preferred screen by having better viewing angles and being lighter overall.
I have a script that I run every 15 minutes via cron that checks for updates to the config file. It compares the time and date stamp of the config file against the time and date stamp of the pid file from when MM was started. If the config file is newer, it restarts MM.
if [ /home/pi/MagicMirror/config/config.js -nt /home/pi/.pm2/pids/mm-0.pid ]; then
/usr/bin/pm2 restart mm
fi
One of the challenges doing this would likely have is the fact that MM is designed to be without a keyboard and mouse, and recipes on web pages are never at the top of the page. “Sending a link” would ultimately result in that link being opened on the MM and it would display from the top of the page. How would you scroll to get to what you need? Yes, I could see where some level of integration of voice commands could help, but I think it would be problematic.
Something you could consider doing would be looking at one of the Google modules that could open a “photo” (nothing but an image file of any type) from your Google Photos or Google Drive and then taking a screen shot of the recipe and saving it to that location. The module would need to “find it” in order to display it and then you would delete it later on for the displaying of it to go away.
If you’re not using the MM as a photo frame, you could do this similarly with one of the photo frame setups, too.
@sdetweil Agreed. And, it would still require a method for the module to “register” with the remote thermometer of its existence when it loads so that initial temp and updates will be transmitted.
Why not write the module that goes into MM and then use a script on the thermometer to update the module when the temp changes? If your thermometer is measuring the internal temp of a home, and that changes infrequently because the heat or AC is on, there’s no point in polling the thermometer every five minutes to see what the temp is. :)
@dwburger I think you’re on a good path with this…Keep us posted…
@dwburger You’re trying to put a band-aid on a gushing wound - WiFi issues, display problems, PM2 not starting MM…
Tackle one problem at a time to get them all fixed instead of relying on a restart to fix one issue and letting it cause two others.
I think you’re missing the point.
If you have two modules, X and Y, and you disable one and the problem persists? What’s your diagnosis?
How long do you allow the system to run with one module disabled and no fault before you are able to actually, definitively, able to declare that the problem is the sole result of that module?
Even if you can declare the issue gone, how do you know that it wasn’t an issue related to the combination of modules?
Without explicit logging and debug information to actually see a stack trace of the fault, there is no way to declare “anything” by disabling a module.
That would seem a reasonable approach, but all you can definitively determine is that a specific module is not the sole culprit if the error persists.
Disable module, error doesn’t return in 24 hours. This does not definitively prove anything as it might be a still-enabled module that causes the fault but only because some other module or setting is creating the condition where the fault occurs.
Disable module, error returns. This does not definitively prove anything except that the disabled module is not the sole reason for the fault. It could be creating “some” of the faults or be related to the fault occurring.
In other words, this is essentially the situation of it being impossible to prove a negative.
I use ImagesPhotos and have issues with my RPi3 faulting. I also use the default CurrentWeather, WeatherForecast, and GoogleCalendar modules.
Once-a-day reboots don’t generally help much with random lock-ups. I wrote a script that checks the error log for “out of memory”. If the string is found, it shuts down the mirror, flushes the logs, starts the mirror back up, and sends me a push notification so I know of the error. I run the script via cron every five minutes and get anywhere from 2 to 20 events per day with no rhyme or reason to it.
Also, my mirror shuts down each day at 11PM and boots up at 7AM. So, it’s only running for 16 out of 24 hours every day.
I have a few standard modules installed and ONE 3rd party module. Mine locks up -all the time- and I can not figure out why. The 3rd party module is one that the author runs in his own environment with a setup just like mine and never has an issue.
I’ve been chasing the issue with zero progress for weeks and weeks.
@sdetweil said in Third-Party Module - how to get help?:
@ember1205 said in Third-Party Module - how to get help?:
What I saw seemed to be different from a “slow paint” issue - it painted the top half and stopped. It sat there for a few seconds and then the image switched to the next one.
from our text messages, I think this was caused by the bug u found on image update scheduling…
I have fixed that now (thanks by the way, been looking for it for over a year now)
I don’t know that I deserve any credit here as I just passed along an observation after you modified your code based on a question I had about whether it was possible to do something. Glad you found and corrected something you had been chasing, though.
@User_1234 said in Is there any command line that I can send an alert?:
I’m new to programming and I’m trying to create a magic mirror. Do i have to create a .js to execute the alert?
What kind of alert? What is it that you’re trying to accomplish?
@sdetweil said in Third-Party Module - how to get help?:
@ember1205 no… I have seen the slow paint issue myself many times…
electron is having some painting problem… again we are on 3.0.13, no longer supported since way back…
I had tried to get us to 6.0.12 this release, but the test system failed, and they removed this change from the 2.10 release
(but I have seen paint problems on 6.0.12 too)u can try this manually
cd ~/MagicMirror npm install electron@6.0.12
What I saw seemed to be different from a “slow paint” issue - it painted the top half and stopped. It sat there for a few seconds and then the image switched to the next one.
While upgrading manually would certainly get me to something newer for Electron, it puts me in the position of not having a “standard install” for future troubleshooting and such. It’s a double-edged sword…
@sdetweil said in Third-Party Module - how to get help?:
@ember1205 you need to do another git pull…
i found a case where it doesn’t update the image anymore…
Will do.
As an aside… I directly witnessed an odd scenario the other day when I had it refreshing every five minutes… one of the images only loaded the upper half on the screen (the bottom half of the screen had no image and was blank). I could not tell what image it was as I have quite a few in rotation and the frame continued on cleanly from there with the next image.
Is that in any way related to what you found?