Can't get ROCK to connect to music libraries

Roon Software Discussion
1

Roon Server:
Intel NUC 5i5RYH 16Gb RAM, 250Gb M2, 250Gb SSD running ROCK

Current Primary Audio Chain:
SMSL PL100 CD transport >optical>
WiiM Ultra streamer >USB>
Fosi ZD3 DAC >XLR>
Fosi ZA3 Amp x 2 (configured as mono) >14AWG cables>
Polk Monitor 70 II floor standing speakers

Number of Tracks in Library
~22K

New here and very excited to join the Roon community! As a first step, I installed ROCK on an old Intel NUC I was no longer using which happens to be among the models supported by Roon Server. I reconfigured the BIOS and the installation apparently went well, I downloaded and copied the ffmpeg codec file to the Data directory as instructed and had no problems bringing up the ROCK interface. I also installed the Roon client on my primary Windows PC with no problems, logged into Tidal and can play tracks from there.

The issue I’m having currently is that Roon will not accept pointers to my music library. I hit the Add Network Share button and enter them but nothing happens, either no error message at all or “UnexpectedError” which isn’t too helpful. I tried this pointing both to my main Windows 10 PC as well as to a shared dataset on a TRUENAS Core machine I built mainly for backup. The pointers I entered included:
//RYZEN9/iTunes
smb:\RYZEN9\iTunes
//TRUENAS/Music
smb:\TRUENAS\Music
Also tried swapping in the IP addresses for the server names of the two machines, same result.

All the relevant devices are hard wired on the same subnet and the folder permissions on both machines allow access for anyone inside the network, so I’m at a loss what to do. I’m assuming I’ve overlooked something and any advice is welcome! Similar topics I’ve seen on the forum don’t seem very relevant. If I can’t get it resolved I guess I’ll try reinstalling the server on my Windows machine which is pretty muscular, or attach a USB drive large enough to hold my library (currently about half a terabyte) to the NUC.

I’m also in the process of building a Raspberry Pi-based endpoint running RoPieee, waiting on a HiFiBerry DAC hat to feed analog into our WiiM Ultra streamer which also serves as a preamp but has no USB input. Any advice along those lines is also welcome, I did manage to get RoPieee installed on a 3B+ Pi.

2

Try using the ip address instead of tournament and see if that works.

3

I usually avoid using host names in domestic networks, so using IP (v.4) addresses i usually put something like this in:
\\192.168.1.50\Media
Sometimes i add a speculative username password which seem to help under certain circumstances, such as “guest / anonymous”.

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4

This is not the correct format for connecting to a Windows share. It should be \\RYZEN9\iTunes.

Also, you say:

All the relevant devices are hard wired on the same subnet and the folder permissions on both machines allow access for anyone inside the network

AFAIK, you won’t be able to use “Everyone” in the Windows folder share permissions for ROCK, you have to use explicit Windows Credentials (and not a Microsoft account, but a local Windows account). I suggest you create a local Windows account for your ROCK/NUC to access your PC.

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5

You managed to try 4 versions and none of them follows one of the formats that are given in the documentation

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6

Yep and since it was referenced here’s a link

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7

Yes I’m aware that’s only valid for Linux thanks, only tried it out of desperation :slight_smile:

I’ll try setting up credentialed accounts for access and change the folder permissions, thanks to all for the feedback!

8

Just posting this to see how the forum resolves backslashes, cuz I know that’s not what I actually typed for the smb paths.
/TRUENAS
//TRUENAS
///TRUENAS
////TRUENAS

9

I ignored the number of backslashes because I know that the forum eats one. The backslash is used as an escape character by Markup (as used by the forum software) and hence it is necessary to write three backslashes if one wants to see two.

However, even if we implicitly substitute two backslashes at the start of UNC paths, where only one appears but you surely typed two, the paths you used still don’t conform to the documentation:

However, it’s either „smb:“ with forward slashes or a UNC path with backslashes:

smb://host/share
\\host\share

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10

Hmm, that’s odd. When I pasted my original post from a text editor there were double backslashes in those Linux paths, but in the post there are only one.

11

See my above post :slight_smile:

However:

These are forward slashes, not backslashes

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12

It a function of the forum software to get double backslashes you have to escape each backslash with … wait for it … a backslash.

Alternatively wrap the text within a code tag.

This …

Double backslash \\\\

[code]
Double backslash \\
[/code]

Displays as …

Double backslash \\

Double backslash \\
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13

Duh! You’re quite right of course, chalk it up to OS dyslexia.

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14

Would’ve been more instructive if I didn’t type forward slashes :roll_eyes:.

15

Okay I think I’ve finally got the slashes straight (newbies :roll_eyes:). Still working on getting the paths to work, networking is not my forte and my only experience with Linux permissions has been from recently building and implementing a TRUENAS Scale server. For the time being I copied my library to a WD Black external drive and connected it to the NUC running ROCK, and I can play my files from there with no problems.

An unrelated issue: I’m still trying to wrap my head around the Roon architecture, but I was pleasantly surprised to find I could direct hi-res music directly to our WiiM Utra streamer/preamp over the LAN (guess I shouldn’t have been since I think the “Roon Ready” designation implies this) and it sounds great. I had assumed I would need a dedicated endpoint like a Raspberry Pi + DAC hat to stream there from Roon, but is this only needed for devices without any network or digital input? If there’s no sonic advantage to using the endpoint I’ll find some other use for the Pi. Our other audio system (for the back yard) is WiiM Mini streamer >optical> SMSL SU-1 DAC >rca> Fosi BT20A Amp >> Polk Atrium 6 speakers.