Are there any of you that use Mac Mini 2012 (the last one with a dvd drive) as a Rock.
I am quite happy using it with OSX, but the spec (i3, 8Gb Ram and 500Gb HD) should be enough to use it a a ROCK and I kind of think that would be the ideal: Integrated CD drive (for ripping) and expandable HD (which I suppose could even be converted to an SSD).
I like the sturdy build of the Mac mini and would think that it should work with the ROCK operating system.
It’s not supported in any way. My guess is you’d be hard pressed to even make it boot the linux distro that powers ROCK. Never mind the lack of drivers. My advice: Don’t even try to go there
Given that OSX is, in essence, a Linux operating system, I would expect it to work with Roon ROCK. Also, given that the 2012 Mac mini runs an intel I3 processor, it should work.
A NUC is tempting, but I do not like the fact that it does not have a CD drive built in (yes, I know, you can add a cd drive via USB, but I what it in the same box, not just attached via an umbilical cord. Also, the recommended (low spec) NUC is identical in spec to the Mac Mini (2012), part from the M2 hard drive.
So, I still think that the Mac mini (2012) may be a good basis for a ROCK installation and repeat my request for input from people who have tried to implement it, especially to find out whether they succeeded (or not!!)
macOS is Unix based (freeBSD originally) not Linux. I personally don’t see any way ROCK could work on a mac, even assuming you managed to install it.
Edit: Also a Mac of that vintage is under-powered for a Roon Core.
I might try installing Linux on that 2012 Mac mini. Once you’ve done that, it should run Roon Server nicely in a headless fashion. There are some guides for doing this sort of thing here:
As @Sheldon_Stokes says, the mac runs efi, which will be your first obstacle, since a rock linux will only run on oldschool bios. Next, the mac’s firmware is completely custom, so you’d probably have to find someone to reverse engineer it to make it work. Next there’s hardware compatibility: rock doesn’t lets you install additional drivers, so ethernet, wifi and usb would likely not work. All said, if you have a mac mini and want to use it for rock only, you’re better off selling it on ebay and getting a nuc - and you will probably have money left over
Yes me. However, you are wrong: apple hasn’t installed any superdrives in the mini since 2011, the last model was the mini 2010 with an intel C2D processor.
but I agree with you that. 2012 mini would be the ultimate roon hardware - if rock os supported the mini
i use roon under mac os 10.13.6 (high sierra) because mojave and catalina only caused stress. this is very practical because of the system integration in the mac network and simple remote control via screen sharing, which is not the case with the NUC. the Mini is also much more powerful and therefore significantly cheaper (quad-i7 with 16GB RAM for less than €250, i5 for €150-200).
Disadvantage: you don’t have an optimized OS and a bunch of background processes that can interfere
Plenty non “NUC” devices that run rock just fine, a Mac mini would not be one of them.
I use a little HP pro desk, which has an i3, 8gb of ram and dual ssd’s. It’s basically the same in architecture to the NUC including chipset, but you can pick them up for next to nothing.
Is there anything non-apple that is as well designed (and, thus, with high WAF) AND including a cd-drive? I used to have a Fujitsu but unfortunately it also needed a small piece of software (windows-only) to eject a cd…
I ran ROCK on both a 2010 and 2011 Mac Mini. The only real limitation was the lack of a network driver for the on-board equipment. I had to use a USB to Cat5 dongle and that worked perfectly. I was even able to use the second hard drive in the Mini as the ROCK formatted storage for my music.
It was surprisingly good at basic roon functions. I used the old 2010 machine as my core for a few months before switching to a NUC8i7.
Mr Fixit (on this forum) was the one to discover you could boot from a ROCK USB one certain year Macs. He was a great help.
Look arounf the Feb 20 timeframe to see Wizardofoz (Mr Fix it) and my conversation about the subject. It details the unique procedure for getting it up and running on “unsupported year” Mac Minis. In my case, that was the 2010.
I’m was looking to use a 2011 Mac mini as headless Roon server running Mac OSX but now I see with Roon 2.0 min OS now is 10.15. This Mini maxes out at 10.3. What’s my best option?
I’m using a NUC for ROCK an older model and it runs good. I’m giving the NUC to my wife for work stuff if I can get Mac mini working with preferred Roon OS as a MOCK. Or as Roon server maybe on a Linux distribution that would work with it.
I’m not finding much info for mini running RoonOS, any pointers?
That may be your best bet. I tried intstalling ROCK on an old Mini following some of the vague guidance here. I succeeded after many hours but discovered – and had been warned – that ethernet did not work out of the box and required a USB adapter. The one I had did not work so I resorted to a Linux install + Roon Server which ran well until I moved to an M1 Mac Mini.
I’m not positive, because I haven’t tried it, but I don’t think the MacOS is a limitation for what we were discussing previously. Running ROCK on a Mac Mini sidesteps the whole MacOS since that gets deleted. As long as ROCK runs on intel computers, the 2010-2018 Mac Mini shouldn’t be a problem.
Wow. Ouch. I was just trying something new and passing along my successes and failures. Sorry the thread was confusing.
I think you are dead on, though. Linux is the way for running Roon on older computers. It can handle almost any hardware (read: wifi adapters, HDMI connections) and presents it all neatly to the Roon program. Add to that there are some incredibly lightweight distributions that can run on computers from 1996 and you have the single greatest OS for running Roon on anything and everything.
