Sorry about the delay. Here’s my solution.
If you still have a problem I’ll zip everything up and send it to you.
my solution and cowboys are similar but I always make sure with linux flavors everything is up to date. It’s just a habbit I also made everything so you could just copy entire commands then paste them into the terminal to save time
Install jessie using this Noobs link.

Its super easy to follow and takes care of a lot of basic steps automatically

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/noobs/
Follow the directions

If you need to set up a wireless card go here scroll down and
follow the wireless instructions then come back here

https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/236/complete-setup-tutorial/6

Now to configure your Pi go to superkey(Windows key) - preferences - raspberry pi configuration
Set up location, keyboard, time zone and time. The correct time is very important.

open up a terminal and run this the following command to get everything up to date

sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get upgrade

Now run the following to update the RPi firmware

sudo rpi-update

When done reboot

Now install the MM software
Open a terminal and run

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MichMich/MagicMirror/master/installers/raspberry.sh | bash

Rotate your screen if you want by doing this. I didnt bother for now

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Rotate display vertically

display_rotate=1

ctrl-x to save then Y for yes

Now do this Or just use your file manager to make your copy of the config file.
I never modify the .sample file

cd /home/pi/MagicMirror/config
cp config.js.sample config.js

now change to the MM folder

cd /home/pi/MagicMirror

Use the following to start your mirror

DISPLAY=:0 npm start

I’m interested in doing something similar but with random video files

If you still haven’t gotten anywhere I’ll zip up and send you my entire directory structure and a step by step instruction sheet I wrote for myself to get the basic mirror up and running. You can compare them to yours and see where we differ. That should give you some insight.

Your assumption is correct.

Did you follow this?

https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/236/complete-setup-tutorial

If so it should work. If doesn’t let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

P.S. Do not change the name of the config.js.sample Copy it and name the copy config.js

@cowboysdude I have a very deep and very broad background in I.T. Just not with Object Oriented Programming. I can generally muddle my way through things. It is very helpful though when documentation is clear and also when people offer assistance and leave the ego at the door. I’m happy to help if I can with the config.js file.

@cowboysdude Didn’t mean you. Just in general some install docs are written better than others.

@yawns Some instructions are better than others LOL.