FYI: Move Roon ROCK NUC to UEFI boot

Roon Software Discussion ROCK
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I thought I would give a brief description of my successful move to UEFI boot (and a minor niggle or question on something odd):

Originally set up a NUC10i7FNH with ROCK - at the time only legacy boot was supported. No issues. My NUC has 32gb RAM, 500gb system SSD, and a 4tb internal SSD for local files.

First thing was a backup of my Roon db. I auto-backup over the network every 4 days, but I wanted something faster in a USB key. I inserted a USB key in the front USB slot, it was FAT32 format. Upon beginning the backup and snapshot, it seems that the Roon process crashed, as the core suddenly showed unavailable on the remote client. It recovered after a while. Anyone experienced this? What’s going on?

For safety and robustness, I reformatted the USB key to ext4 (you need a linux install to do this). This is the native file format so I figured that would be the best. Backing up the Roon db to this USB key did NOT result in the crash I saw above. However, beware that when Roon shows the backup is finished, the NUC will still be writing to the USB key for some time (a few minutes in my case, my Roon db is about 6gb). What I did to ensure I didn’t pull the key too soon was to request a reboot on the webpage. The NUC will hold off the reboot until all data is written, so that was a safe way to know.

Next I opened up the NUC and detached the internal 4tb data SSD, just to ensure that I would not inadvertently erase it.

Next I updated the BIOS on my NUC just because why not? However, you DON’T NEED (*) to do this and for anyone not tech savvy I would recommend not to do it. If it goes wrong you can brick your NUC.

Finally, with the Roon ROCK download in a USB stick I run it on the NUC. You will need to connect a screen and keyboard to see what you’re doing. Installed very fast. Turned NUC off, reattached the 4tb SSD, powered back on (**).

From the Roon client I then restored the Roon db in the USB stick and all was well.

The whole process took less than 30 mins.

(*) Although Roon’s advice is to update the BIOS prior to installing ROCK, in this case, you already have ROCK running, using Legacy boot, so your BIOS is already fine for ROCK. Switching to UEFI boot will not change that, so your current BIOS will also not need to be changed.

(**) You will need to copy the ffmpeg library file to the proper location as is the case with every clean ROCK install.

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I did the switch to UEFI, also, without the USB issues (was fat32 formatted) and I also did not disconnect the internal storage drive. The files were not touched on the internal storage drive so just needed to restore the backup. My BIOS was the latest so no update needed. Took about 15 minutes for me to get back up and running.

I am also on the early access so I had to reinstall the EA image at the end.

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Thanks for writing this up.

The file system on the stick prior to the imaging should not matter because the imaging replaces everything on the stick at a disk sector level (i.e., a lower logical level than file systems). I have created countless Linux boot sticks from images in the same way without worrying about the stick‘s file system.

Though it’s worth mentioning that if you want to reuse the stick for something else after you are done, you’ll have to run another full format pass on the disk (and might have to remove any existing partitions that the imaging created, too)

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Yep, I usually use a “clean” command in diskpart to wipe the USB stick after I burn an Install ISO to it and want to use it elsewhere. But I do not do this when I am going to use etcher to put another iso on it. I do this often when trying out different Linux distros.

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Yeah, as the imaging will wipe it anyway. I meant if one wants to to use it as a „normal“ storage stick again.

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I was referring to the USB stick I used to back up the Roon db, NOT the one with the ROCK image, which as you say gets completely overwritten by the imager. It is that USB stick where I backed up the Roon db that I formatted as ext4.

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Ah, OK, I misread, sorry. Thanks for clarifying and for the whole thing, I am sure it will be useful to many users.

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Pardon my ignorance, what is the advantage of moving to UEFI boot?

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The only one is that currently one needs an UEFI boot installation to be able to use the new Tailscale support for ARC with ROCK (i.e., this approach doesn’t need port forwarding on the router, not every ISP supports this and not everyone likes it). Though support for BIOS boot installations may come later.

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Thank you. I’m not a Roon Arc user, so won’t mess around with it. Cheers

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The basic difference is that UEFI supports secure boot (which prevents the computer from booting from unauthorized/unsigned applications), BIOS is 16 bit vs UEFI being 32 or 64 bit, UEFI should boot faster (not really and issue with ROCK) and UEFI can use a boot drive larger than 2 TB where BIOS cannot unless you do some fancy footwork which you won’t be doing with ROCK.

All that being said, if you don’t need the new features and it’s working fine for you, no need to do anything, if you don’t want to.

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Not much, but since UEFI is the current ROCK and Nucleus install type, OS updates can be released sooner for those than the legacy boot. Example is the Tailscale feature although I don’t need it myself. There could be other features in the future that are first released in UEFI OS releases.

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@miguelito
Hi Miguel,
After the installation of Rock, as you described, I had to install ffmpeg-file for the codecs.
I also had to click on “Reinstall” under “Operating system” to install the latest version of ROCK OS, because the ISO of ROCK has not the latest version available. Afterwards the version will become “Version 2.1 (build 271) production”.
Thank you for this guide. I am sure that a lot of people will use it as a handy manual.
Kind regards, Frank.

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Or have a look of what your router can do. I connect to Roon/Rock server through WireGuard VPN connection with my FRITZ!Box:

Torben

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Was going to ask that same question.

It only changes how the NUC boots and not how ROCK runs.
Only the Tailscale support for ARC is different, at this time.

I have a NUC7i7DN, same motherboard as in a Rev B Nucleus+, booting fine and running ROCK fine. I have ARC running fine through a UPnP port on my Firewall (Cisco RV340). Only have IPv4 support from ISP (Virgin Media Ireland) as I run their modem in “Modem Only” mode.
Will stick and pass, at this time. If it ain’t broken, leave it alone!

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Hi Vitor,
I understand your point of view. But I like to fiddle around with PC’s. So, as I discovered that Roon has improved the OS for UEFI-ROCK only, I was triggered to get my NUC10i7 on UEFI, even if I never have used ARC (I don’t like portforwarding), and even if I will probably never use Tailscale.
In any case, now my ROCK is in the latest OS-version (with, I hope, the latest available Kernel) and also the latest BIOS-version of the NUC available.
But again, If you are not using ARC, and you are not planning to use it in the future, then I indeed see no reason to change from Legacy-boot to UEFI-boot.
Kind regards, Frank.

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Pretty sure I got the latest version downloaded, but I will check (not home now).

The ffmpeg file copy is always required, it’s a non-issue.

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I got 2.1/271 in the USB key I flashed. Did not need to update.

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Or it was updated automatically. I downloaded the iso-file of Rock and I checked it immediately after installation. Then it was still 1.0, but I cannot remember the build-version. Afterwards I just had to reinstall it via the GUI, and than 2.1 build 271 was there.
I just downloaded ROCK-iso again, and it has exactly the same size as my download of a few days ago, so I presume the content will still be the same. That is the reason why I think your ROCK was updated automatically. But any way, this is not that important, finally one will have the latest ROCK-version on his NUC after a new UEFI-installation.
Kind regards, Frank.

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It’s possible it auto-updated. I do recall seeing 2.1/271 right away - as I was checking that I got the latest announced version, but it is possible during boot it updated (I have fairly fast internet so I don’t think I would have noticed).