Android app having trouble finding Linux Core

Jeffrey_Moore · July 3, 2017, 9:16pm

Going through the survey was interesting. For one thing, I learned that the particular sequence of:

shut down RoonServer
start Roon Remote on the Android device
while the above is still feeling around for the Core, restart RoonServer

resulted in the remote connecting for the first time in pretty much forever. So, fascinating.

It also resulted in my assigning myself the project of trying to figure out if there could be any jumbo-frame action between RoonServer and Roon Remote. Seems unlikely, but when I get back home I’ll at least doublecheck what MTU the Ethernet port in use on the server is set to use. I’m expecting to find it at (the default of?) 1500, but will check. Or is there some other setting or some characteristic of intermediate equipment I should be looking at?

Fernando_Pereira · July 4, 2017, 1:33am

I just double-checked MTU from my Ubuntu NUC:

$ traceroute --mtu 192.168.2.69
traceroute to 192.168.2.69 (192.168.2.69), 30 hops max, 65000 byte packets
 1  192.168.2.69 (192.168.2.69)  357.827 ms F=1500  71.934 ms  2.449 ms

192.168.2.69 is an Android device (Pixel) that is unable to talk to the core unless the core is stopped, the Android app is restarted, and then the core is restarted.

Jeffrey_Moore · July 7, 2017, 4:00pm

Well, I did it. I bought a freakin’ iPad so I can control Roon conveniently while resolution of this issue is playing out. It’s good to check out the other popular mobile technology family every half-decade or so, I guess.

I’ve confirmed that I still pretty strongly dislike iOS - even in its very latest flavor on current hardware, its clunky user interface just makes devices feel like duller tools than up-to-date Android devices - but I guess its network stack and apps involve a different codebase from Android, and it’s been working solidly as a Roon remote.

So now I’m experiencing less daily frustration and aggravation from the current bug, but I’ll of course continue to do whatever I’m asked to do to help debug it.

Fernando_Pereira · July 8, 2017, 2:08am

I agree. I got my current iPad when I left my Nexus 7 on the seat pocket of an intercontinental flight and I could not find a satisfactory Android replacement. Two months later, the airline found the lost Nexus 7 and returned it, but by then too late. However, the iPad as a beautiful screen.

Jeffrey_Moore · July 13, 2017, 3:40pm

Some good news, and some confusing news.

The good news: my Android Roon app seems to be connecting quite happily to RoonServer.

The confusing news: I saw that a new Roon Remote app was in the pipeline available to install, so I tried the old one again just to confirm that it didn’t work, before trying the new one.

And the old app (build 233) seemed to work fine!

I installed the new one (build 242) and it’s working great as well.

This was all still before updating the build 234 Core.

So this doesn’t provide as much useful information as hoped.

In between when build 233 was not working for me and now, when it is… the only significant change I can think of along the path between app and Core is that I replaced our faithful central Juniper switch with one from Ubiquiti. I didn’t actually re-test the Android Roon app after than change because I was sunk so far into despair that I’d given up on life and begun using an iPad as my remote.

So… huh. I’m sorry that I don’t have good data to give you about what impact the new app build has on a busted setup.

rolski · July 13, 2017, 4:30pm

The last build (233 ?) had become stable for me - with my 'phone only rarely losing contact, but regaining it quite soon afterwards.

Since updating to 242 this morning - 1 (NUC) core & 2 (Windows PC) remotes - my 'phone has failed to connect.
I’ve rebooted everything in the chain, but to no avail - still looking at the ‘Remote Connection’ screen.

hmartin · July 13, 2017, 6:50pm

Yes for me also, 242 totally killed my Android Remote. Only way to make it work for a very short time is to restart the ROCK server … not very good user experience needing to restart the server every time you want to change track.

@mike please tell us there is some good news on a fix comming in the near future.

BR
//Martin

mannp · July 13, 2017, 7:25pm

No difference for me with the 242 update.

I have also noted that the android device connected to my dac is still available to play music through, even though it shows the ‘Remote Connection … Waiting for remote core’ and doesn’t appear connected to the core.

Fernando_Pereira · July 14, 2017, 3:13am

Same here, 242 makes no difference on my Pixel, still stuck.

mannp · July 14, 2017, 8:20am

@support Do you happen to have urls to previous versions of the apks of the android apps, so we can go back to the ones that work for us until you get the issues fixed?

Johan_Jongstra · July 14, 2017, 7:50pm

My setup is the latest roon core on a archlinux machine. The core goes through hQplayer, running on the same machine. It connects with my dac through NAA via microrendu. Remote is through windows 10 laptop. All is working well. The remote app on my Meizu Android 6.0 phone doesn’t work. It can’t find the core, also when I let it scan for IP address. When my laptop is still on the app sees the windows10 remote, But never the archlinux core. My VNC app on the phone contacts the archlinux without any problem.
I checked all the settings on the phone, but can’t find any strange things. Now I am out of ideas. Do you have a clue?

RBM · July 14, 2017, 7:53pm

Hey Johan,

I moved your post into this thread. Be sure to read this message above by @mike and fill out the survey – it will help getting this issue resolved more quickly:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/build-233-android-app-having-trouble-finding-core/26787/60

Johan_Jongstra · July 16, 2017, 7:43am

Thank you for placing my post in this topic. And thanks for the link to the survey. I filled it in… Lets hope they will figure this out. In the mean time I noticed that starting, or restarting the core when running the app on the Phone is a good workaround.

mike · July 18, 2017, 5:27pm

Hey all – wanted to give a quick update here for everyone. First off, we appreciate everyone taking the time to fill out the survey. We have collected a lot of information from all of you (clearly) and we have been using that information to focus our testing as we continue to try to reproduce this issue in-house.

To reiterate, no one in our QA department (or on our team in general) has seen persistent issues like those described in this thread, despite the fact that many of us use the Android app on a daily basis. And thousands of users have run our Android app in recent weeks, which suggests that in the vast majority of configurations this is working as expected. As you might expect, it’s difficult to pin down an issue in a development environment if we can’t figure out how to make it happen.

We have some testing planned for later this week that should mimic some environmental variables we saw consistently across many of your setups – we’re optimistic that testing will yield useful information. Already, we’ve seen that the overwhelming majority of you are running Linux Cores, and are seeing successful connections when the Core is rebooted. While this hasn’t yet led to consistent reproduction steps, it does give us invaluable information about the nature of this issue.

We are also planning to put some additional logging and potential fixes into a test build this week, and we will likely want to test that with one or two of you running simpler setups – we will be in touch.

I also wanted to mention that we did recently find a connectivity issue that we hoped might resolve this problem – again, we can’t test this confidently for the moment. That fix went live in last week’s release and while we’re glad it seems to have made a difference for a few of you, clearly there is still work to be done here and we wanted to reassure everyone that we’re committed to seeing this through.

As an aside, I’ll just mention that Android is one of the trickier platforms for us to debug due to the fragmentation of devices and operating system versions. Across the 13 people who’ve completed the survey, more than 16 different Android devices were mentioned.This makes things more complex, but it’s also good news because it means this isn’t likely to be device-specific, and also because we have a few of these devices in house.

We will be following up with a few of you in the next couple of days for additional logs, testing, and clarifications. Looking forward to resolving this ASAP, everyone. We really appreciate your patience, guys.

Thanks!

Christian_Chateauvie · July 19, 2017, 7:25am

hi
i followed the instructions you’ve sent me by email (I tried to respond by email but my email got rejected as I don’t seem to be authorized to send emails to the community@roonlabs.com address from my address).

the pattern of malfunction was a bit different today, and i found out a different workaround. Here is what happened : (all times are CET)

core booted at 7:30, remote app on both iOS and Android stuck at ‘connecting’ step
rebooted core at around 7:50 to no avail. killing iOS remote and relaunching it did not help
rebooted core again at 8:00 to no avail. killing iOS remote and relaunching it did not help
while remotes were running and attempting to connect, i switched off the DAC which is connected to the core via USB. This unfroze both remotes. I then switched the DAC back on.

i have uploaded the logs as instructed, using the support ID 09fc7029-0011-4584-b839-2b0653d3c075 that you generated for me. let me know if this helps.

i am unsure this is the same issue - this looks more Alsa related- but it might be relevant to ask to those experiencing the problem if they are using USB DACs

thanks

hmartin · July 21, 2017, 9:25am

Thanks for the update mike!

Also that things stoped working with 242 for me was partly that battery optimization was apperently turned on again, turning off battery optimization makes the Roon Remote work a lot longer after making the remote finding core using a reboot.

Richard_Elwell · July 23, 2017, 5:49pm

Greetings.

Here is a good one. Same issue remote not connecting on Android phone (Nexus 6P). Tried all the workarounds in this thread and others with some success but never a stable connection. 2 iPad’s on the same infrastructure work 100%. BUT as long as I have an instance of the remote running and connected on my Win 10 laptop (obviously on the same subnet and AP) the Nexus works every time. This is totally repeatable, at least on my hardware

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Core -> Netgear GS728TP -> Engenius EAP 600

Sonicwall Soho for typical router / firewall duties.

4 Roon bridges on RPI’s, 1 wireless, all rock solid

Happy bug hunting.

Michael_Taormina · July 27, 2017, 11:33pm

After installing build 247 on the core and both my Nexus 5 and Nexus 5x devices, my issue remains.

Michael_Taormina · July 27, 2017, 11:50pm

I have another data point here, but I’m not sure what it means. When going into the Roon settings from a PC and changing the name of the core, the remotes immediately connect even though it doesn’t appear as though the core restarts. Afterwards, closing the app on the remote and relaunching puts it back into the same state where it cannot connect.

Patrick_Jakiel · August 8, 2017, 6:03am

I can confirm this as well, have an older HTC One phone which also does not gives me any issues. Both my Samsung S6 and S8 have issues though.