[Bug] update notification noderestart restarts wrong runtime

[sdetweil]

Environment

MagicMirror² version:
Node version:
npm version:
Platform:

Which start option are you using?

node --run start:x11

Are you using PM2?

No

Module

updatenotification

Have you tried disabling other modules?

• Yes
• No

Have you searched if someone else has already reported the issue on the forum or in the issues?

• Yes

What did you do?

Configuration

set updatenotification to restart mm

<!-- Paste relevant code here -->
updateAutorestart: true

Steps to reproduce the issue:

cause a change in some installed 3rd party module

What did you expect to happen?

MM would restart

What actually happened?

mm failed to start, unable to find WAYLAND_DISPLAY env variable.. as I am using x11

Additional comments

updatenotification uses

Spawn("node --run start"  <--- this uses wayland now

but this instance needs

Spawn("node --run start:x11"
or 
Spawn("node --run start:windows"

one could find the previous start command in process list

ps -ef | grep node | grep start
sam      4138959 2915099  0 16:37 pts/1    00:00:00 node --run start:x11

Participation

• I am willing to submit a pull request for this change.

[khassel]

you can get the start params from https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/process.html#processargv

[sdetweil]

put this in the node_helper.js (using npm run start:x11, or node --run start:x11)

const { argv } = require('node:process');

        start: ()=>{
                console.log("args=",argv);
        },

got this

 args= [
  '/home/sam/MagicMirror/node_modules/electron/dist/electron',
  'js/electron.js'
]

[khassel]

yes, this is exactly what is executed by node --run start:x11

[sdetweil]

yes, but I think that is not what we want to execute

[khassel]

this is what node --run start:x11 executes under the hood, test it, for me this is the way we should go for the updatenotification problem ...

[KristjanESPERANTO]

Should be fixed with #4156 🙂 @sdetweil, can you confirm?

[sdetweil]

Will try tomorrow, grandson baseball all day today

[sdetweil]

I pulled new dev, did npm install

I added un to my config like this

 {
        module: "updatenotification",
        position: "top_center",
        order: "*",
        disabled: false,
        hiddenOnStartup: false,
        configDeepMerge: false,
        animateIn: "None",
        animateOut: "None",
        config: {
          updateAutorestart: true,
          updateInterval: 60000
        }
      },

and updated my Sample Module to force a change
https://github.com/sdetweil/SampleModule.git

git remote -v
origin	https://github.com/sdetweil/SampleModule.git (fetch)
origin	https://github.com/sdetweil/SampleModule.git (push)

only has master branch
git branch
* master

git version 2.42.0

and got this (same as #4137)

[2026-05-18 10:21:07.579] [ERROR] [updatenotification] Failed to get git revisions for SampleModule: Error: Command failed: git rev-list --ancestry-path --count 9a81558..1d0f68d  master
fatal: ambiguous argument '9a81558..1d0f68d  master': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'


sam@sams:~/MagicMirror.2.36.dev$ cd modules/SampleModule/
sam@sams:~/MagicMirror.2.36.dev/modules/SampleModule$ git rev-list --ancestry-path --count 9a81558..1d0f68d  master
1
sam@sams:~/MagicMirror.2.36.dev/modules/SampleModule$ git status
On branch master
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.

nothing to commit, working tree clean

sam@sams:~/MagicMirror.2.36.dev/modules/SampleModule$ git remote -v
origin	https://github.com/sdetweil/SampleModule.git (fetch)
origin	https://github.com/sdetweil/SampleModule.git (push)
sam@sams:~/MagicMirror.2.36.dev/modules/SampleModule$ 

note the MM folder name

~/MagicMirror.2.36.dev

[KristjanESPERANTO]

~/MagicMirror.2.36.dev

That's a little confusing. Why does the folder have an old version number? Both fixes are in v2.37.0-develop.

[khassel]

I pulled new dev

and you really switched to it? Looks like you are still on master ...

[sdetweil]

folder name was a residual, MM instance from MagicMirror org.. not my fork..

ok, dumb, didn't switch.. weird..

[sdetweil]

now I get (after module update )

[2026-05-18 14:46:29.193] [ERROR] [app] Whoops! There was an uncaught exception...
[2026-05-18 14:46:29.193] [ERROR] [app] TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'disableHardwareAcceleration')
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/sam/MagicMirror.2.36.dev/js/electron.js:18:6)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1705:14)
    at Object..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1838:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1441:32)
    at Function._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1263:12)
    at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:328:14)
    at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:237:24)
    at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (node:internal/modules/run_main:171:5)
    at node:internal/main/run_main_module:36:49
[2026-05-18 14:46:29.193] [ERROR] [app] MagicMirror² will not quit, but it might be a good idea to check why this happened. Maybe no internet connection?
[2026-05-18 14:46:29.193] [ERROR] [app] If you think this really is an issue, please open an issue on GitHub: https://github.com/MagicMirrorOrg/MagicMirror/issues
[2026-05-18 14:46:29.444] [INFO]  [systeminformation] 
####  System Information  ####
- SYSTEM:   manufacturer: System manufacturer; model: System Product Name; virtual: false; MM: v2.37.0-develop
- OS:       platform: linux; distro: Ubuntu; release: 22.04.5 LTS; arch: x64; kernel: 5.15.0-177-generic
- VERSIONS: electron: undefined; used node: 22.22.1; installed node: 22.22.1; npm: 10.9.4; pm2: 5.4.3
- ENV:      XDG_SESSION_TYPE: x11; MM_CONFIG_FILE: undefined
            WAYLAND_DISPLAY:  undefined; DISPLAY: :0.0; ELECTRON_ENABLE_GPU: undefined
- RAM:      total: 48076.70 MB; free: 39581.88 MB; used: 8494.82 MB
- OTHERS:   uptime: 11104 minutes; timeZone: America/Chicago

and the error was fatal