Autostart your MagicMirror²

The methods below describe ways to automatically start your MagicMirror² on boot, and even ways to keep it running in case of a failure.

Using PM2

PM2 is a production process manager for Node.js applications with a built-in load balancer. It allows you to keep applications alive forever, to reload them without downtime and to facilitate common system admin tasks. In this case we will use it to keep a shell script running.

Install PM2

Install PM2 using NPM:

sudo npm install -g pm2

Starting PM2 on Boot

To make sure PM2 can do its job when (re)booting your operating system, it needs to be started on boot. Luckily, PM2 has a handy helper for this.

pm2 startup

PM2 will now show you a command you need to execute.

Make a MagicMirror² start script

To use PM2 in combination with MagicMirror², we need to make a simple shell script. Preferable, we put this script outside the MagicMirror² folder to make sure it won't give us any issues if we want to upgrade the mirror.

cd ~
nano mm.sh

Add the following lines:

cd ./MagicMirror
DISPLAY=:0 npm start

Save and close, using the commands CTRL-O and CTRL-X. Now make sure the shell script is executable by performing the following command:

chmod +x mm.sh

You are now ready to the MagicMirror² using this script using PM2.

Starting your MagicMirror² with PM2

Simply start your mirror with the following command:

pm2 start mm.sh

You mirror should now boot up and appear on your screen after a few seconds.

Enable restarting of the MagicMirror² script

To make sure the MagicMirror² restarts after rebooting, you need to save the current state of all scripts running via PM2. To do this, execute the following command

pm2 save

And that's all there is! Your MagicMirror² should now reboot after start, and restart after any failure.

Controlling your MagicMirror² via PM2

With your MagicMirror running via PM2, you have some handy tools at hand:

Restarting your MagicMirror²

pm2 restart mm

Stopping your MagicMirror²

pm2 stop mm

Show the MagicMirror² logs

pm2 logs mm

Show the MagicMirror² process information

pm2 show mm

Using systemd/systemctl

Note: Systemctl is a control interface for systemd, a powerful service manager often found in full Linux systems. This approach is most like only applicable for those using the "server only" setup running on a linux server.

Create service file

To start, you'll need to create a config file via your editor of choice (nano used in these examples):

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/magicmirror.service

Place the below text into your new file, modify as needed (see notes below) then save & exit. Notes: The example assumes MagicMirror is installed in the "WorkingDirectory" of "/home/server/MagicMirror/" and your node install is located at "/usr/bin/node" (run which node if you're unsure where to find node) this means your full manual start command would be "/usr/bin/node /home/server/MagicMirror/serveronly". While you almost certainly don't type this all out when you run manually, systemctl requires full paths. This example also assumes you have an existing Linux user of "server", but any user will do. "root" will certainly work but has the potential to do more damage, so you should avoid it if possible.

[Unit]
Description=MagicMirror
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=1
User=server
WorkingDirectory=/home/server/MagicMirror/
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node serveronly

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Control MM with systemctl

Now try starting MM with the commands below. If start is successful work, use the 'enable' command below to automatically start when MM fails or is rebooted. If MM does not start, use the "status" command below to see most recent errors.

Note: For any of the below commands 'magicmirror.service' can be replaced with magicmirror as systemd will automatically look for \*.service

Start MM with systemctl

sudo systemctl start magicmirror.service

Stop MM with systemctl

sudo systemctl stop magicmirror.service

To check the status of MagicMirror²

sudo systemctl status magicmirror.service

Allow autostart MagicMirror² on boot

Note: does not start immediately, need to run start command or reboot

sudo systemctl enable magicmirror.service

Disable autostart of MagicMirror²

sudo systemctl disable magicmirror.service

Autostart browser for server mode

Create file /home/server/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart with the following contents:

@lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi
@pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi
@xscreensaver -no-splash
@point-rpi
@sh /home/server/bin/start-chromium.sh

Create file /home/server/bin/start-chromium.sh with the following contents:

#!/bin/sh

set -e

CHROMIUM_TEMP=~/tmp/chromium
rm -Rf ~/.config/chromium/
rm -Rf $CHROMIUM_TEMP
mkdir -p $CHROMIUM_TEMP

chromium-browser \
        --disable \
        --disable-translate \
        --disable-infobars \
        --disable-suggestions-service \
        --disable-save-password-bubble \
        --disk-cache-dir=$CHROMIUM_TEMP/cache/ \
        --user-data-dir=$CHROMIUM_TEMP/user_data/ \
        --start-maximized \
        --kiosk http://localhost:8080 &