Crashed My QNAP Server Again

Did you read http://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_Server_on_NAS?

If not you might have missed this…

" This project was a collaboration between the Roon Team and a member of the Roon community: Chris Rieke!

Chris had started working on the Synology version of Roon Server on his own, so we contacted him and arranged to work together on these projects. Chris will be involved in the maintenance and support for both of these NAS packages in the future. "

So, when it comes to NAS packages, @crieke is a good resource for discussing issues.

I do appreciate his efforts as I said. I get these kinds of relationships - for example I run the Merlin fork of ASUS router firmware.

But this may not be a QNAP issue, so Roon support needs to not be invisible.

Hey @William_Coney – my theory from last time still seems like a possibility here:

I’m double checking there isn’t a more obscure case I’m not thinking about, but when a Windows install is only running as a Remote, the options should be “Connect” (meaning “use this device as a Remote”) and “Setup” (meaning “setup this device as a Core”).

You can see those two options here:

Your screenshot, however, doesn’t say Setup – it says “Continue” which implies that it’s been set up to run as a Core.

What happens if you hit “Continue” on This PC? If you end up with Roon running independent of the NAS, I’m guessing logging out Roon on the Windows machine (Settings > Account) will fix the authorization issue, since then the NAS will be the only Core running.

Another alternative is to just find your database on the Windows machine (instructions here) and rename the Roon folder to something else, like roon_old. Then you can do a fresh remote install on that machine and get a clean test there.

Let us know how it goes @William_Coney.

Well, I think the issues are close to what you’re observing. As I’ve said before, I originally downloaded Roon and set it up on my PC as Core. Wasn’t very happy with using my PC this way but before the trial was up i discovered the QNAP package and installed it. I de-authorized the PC as Core and authorized the server. After a few days I was convinced and bought the lifetime subscription. The day the subscription kicked in [which may also have been the day there was the last before most recent build update] I had exactly this problem of being being caught in an un-authorizable loop. That time I rebooted the server and everything worked. This time I clicked the Roon icon on my PC [now supposedly running as a remote] and got a window saying there was a build update. It showed the PC version as downloading and the QNAP server version as “ready to restart” to update the build. I clicked the restart button and I was back to endless loop mode. Restarting the QNAP didn’t work. Reinstalling the latest build on the QNAP didn’t work. Turning off the PC and only using remotes that were never “Core” didn’t work.

What worked this time was completely uninstalling the software from my PC [including all files, etc] and restarting the server. Then testing with iOS devices and finding that everything was now working. Then I reinstalled the Remote software on my PC and found it still worked.

So there is some glitch / bug / leftover config file / registry key that seems to have triggered this odd behavior when the build update was installed. The PC version seems to revert to thinking its a core while the QNAP server at the same time reports itself as the Core. I really don’t want to waste 4 hours every time there’s a build update. Maybe the next update we can figure out a way to check what’s going on? Its also possible that deleting the Core off my PC and reinstalling only the remote piece is a permanent fix.

Ok. Understood the situation. As you probably know this message normally pops up when you start with a clean install (without a database) or if there is something wrong with the authorization of the core.

It would be helpful, to know which of the 2 cases apply here. I’d try to click the Connect button again, to connect to your QNAP core and then click the Unauthorize button below the devices headline. So you can reassign the authorization to your QNAP.

I know this is not how it should work, but it would help to understand what the issue is about. And in case of an authorization issue, it might get you back to a working state…

Some of this is similar to a problem I reported earlier in January (Admin Login Fail (SAMBA)). Both problems occurred after an installation was changed from a core to a controller and then the controller was updated to a new version. Don’t know what the problem is but you might see if a clean instal fixes it.

Actually, I did try that along the way. In other words, as you suggested I clicked on “Deauthorize” to deauthorize the QNAP and then reauthorized it. Still stuck in the loop. Regardless of what I did with the server, the updated PC build still seemed to see itself as a Core. Removing the PC software in its entirety, old databases and all, was the only way to get things running again.

At this point I’m working again, but I’m certainly open to anything you’d like to try if it helps figure out what’s going on.

Thanks and regards.

I think you’re right about cause. And de- installing the former core seems to have been a key piece of fixing it.

And it just occurred to me that another piece of the puzzle may be that when I installed QNAP and set it up as Core, I didn’t migrate the database over, I just created a new one. So when the build update occurs, the PC software comes up and finds itself sitting on a database but with another device elsewhere on the network authorized. Kind of reminds me of the old Unix NetHack game that, if it thought you were messing with it’s files in order to cheat, would respond “I detect trickery!” And immediately shutdown.