I’m currently more than happy with LMDE 6 hosting my Roon Server. Roon runs very stable and quick. I reboot Linux every few weeks when I also update it at the same time. It takes less then 5 minutes to do so.
I was interested in acquiring a Nucleus One. But as I had a Lenovo laptop laying around with better hardware specs I went with that instead. (After using 3 different Mac’s as Roon Server).
What does this mean? 
Arguably, RoonOS isn’t broken and is stable–I’ve had it running trouble free for many months without a reboot.
Of course, we know that Roon Server isn’t bug free, but this is independent of RoonOS. Only combined with a NUC running RoonOS do we have ROCK.
However, if you want something that doesn’t fit the appliance model, then the option is there to install Roon Server on Linux, macOS or Windows. We have a choice, and this is a good thing.
On RoonOS and Roon Server are accessed by Roon when they enable diagnostics for a support request. This is probably sufficient for those who see the appeal of a Nucleus or ROCK.
The idea of a backdoor is fanciful nowadays. I cannot imagine access to Nucleus/ROCK without a certificate that only Roon has. Gone are the days when I was able to hack a Wyse thin client using an FTP server and Telnet to install my own firmware.
For me, the biggest downside to Roon OS is a reliance on Samba. It’s not great for syncronizing or non-Windows character sets. SSH would be better for accessing the media folders–this opens up many tools to reliably syncronize music files. Log access is probably further down the wishlist–after, maybe, for example a backup solution, with moniroring way down the list.
After the ROCK mishap that prompted this thread, I found an old mac mini I had lying around - not sure what version, but well it is old. At first I thought of researching to see if I could install an officially unsupported OS, as there are hacks you can do. But thought it better as it could be an exercise in frustration. Installed Ubuntu 24.04 Server on it. Works great. It is now my backup Roon server. Serial console enabled so I can maintain completely headless.
And that makes sense! I was actually trying to confirm that as well, it did not make sense to me if there wasn’t one.
That is a great use case that you mention for using a general OS. Pretty straight forward to setup if you have control of your server
My backup server is my old 2014 Mac Mini with Linux Mint installed on it.
It will probably struggle now with my current library size. 9.5k albums and 101 k tracks. LMDE + Roon use 8 gb of RAM.
My Lenovo laptop has 16 gb of RAM installed. But the Mac’s I’ve used all have 8 gb. They made for a slow Roon experience even with a smaller library. Roon works far snappier on the Lenovo Ideapad.
Some people dislike System76 - they believe is they are the Mac of the Linux machine world - overpriced. Other even mention quality issues. I never believe people on the internet, so will have to try for myself - as soon as I put the shekels together, will get 2 of this:
For my roon server and my TrueNAS controller.
Has Roon ported the Mac Roon Server to Apple Silicon (arm64)? Or is it still running under Rosetta? Because if it is arm native now, they could also produce a Linux arm64 build… and this would be interesting:
Kind of dreaming on the last one… 
[Edit: removed the reference to Roon bridge - even though it runs on Pi and therefore in the monster that is the Astra, well… it doesn’t make sense Well… it makes sense even less that using that monster for a Roon server ! Like I said, just making conversation]
Roon has been Apple Silicon for years now. They’ve done that pretty quick after the M1 arrived.
Roon runs very well on my M1 MacBook Pro. However its 8 gb of RAM is really holding it back.
I reckon when it comes to Linux. It runs the Roon Server part, but no support for the interface. Likely not enough Linux users to warrant development of it.
Let alone the multitude of different Linux distributions and desktops which are available. And not even counting the many differences between x86/64 and arm.
We do have a guy here on the Room Community who develops the Community Remote for Linux, first native Linux GUI (v0.2.0) It works quite well here on Linux Mint.
1.- While I have been very vocal about the rightness of a Linux client, this is not it!
It is more about the dumb crazy idea of having a Roon Linux Server on that monster. The Server seems to me it is distribution agnostic for the most part, just need a build hence my question of a native Apple Silicon build, which implies arm.
That said, however dumb, the dumbness required a bit of realism , that is Roon Server being native to Apple Silicon.
Full disclosure, for some reason I assumed the Mac Roon Server was still an x86 binary running emulated under Rosetta - glad it is native.
2.- So cool on the Community Client - will check it out. Did not know.
I am not deleting the post, but regretting it - silly idea, warranted a private chuckle, not a full post. But heck, I never back down from anything. Just clarifying that as I re-read, well… I admit that was silly!
I don’t share your opinion. The performance of an original Nucleus+ with ROCK is seriously underwhelming, hardly usable with a 200K track library. When running Roon Server on Windows 11 on the same machine the performance is somewhere between good and very good… I’d call that (ROCK) broken. And i’m not the only one who has left ROCK for performance reasons.
That’s an entirely different matter … I am talking about RoonOS, not Roon Server or the hardware. Your library is very large, and pushing the boundaries of the Nucleus+.
Funny, I didn’t know that the seventh and eighth generation NUCs supported TPM.
That is an aqute observation, i might have chosen Win 10 for this one, but i cant check right now.
As always, depends on the library. We know for a fact that there are people happily using it with more than 200K tracks
That is another reason to maintain your own open server instead of a closed appliance - performance tweaking, beyond the obvious like upgrades ( are the Nuclei upgradeable? ) but also OS optimization.
If the library is too big and/or too problematic (with the usual stuff like too many unidentified albums etc) for the hardware performance, no amount of tweaking to squeeze out a few percent will solve the problem, though.
It’s a NUC (or whatever similar platform the One is).
Don’t know enough about Roon’s architecture to confirm or deny, but what I mean is that the advantage for those that know how, they get to try when not using the appliances! Again - in the end I recognize that it all depends on what you want and like.
The main question is how do you use your Roon and how got to it - got frustrated with the appliances and went general OS or the other way around, got frustrated with the complexity and went all appliance.
What I failed to mention or ask about - and it is weird because it was the case for me, before I went all general OS - is that there seems to be a third way, those of us that can deal with whatever technologically… just do not particularly want to for this application.
Again, had my ROCK not broken down, I would still be on it, and wouldn’t have gotten the itch to move the endpoints away from Ropieee. But indeed it broke and kind of feel better for not going back to it - feel like I get more options and control that way.
And should I decide (AND IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE I WILL, just sayin’) to move away from Roon, that gives me options, as opposed to a complete teardown, with dedicated appliances.
I’ve always preferred to run things like Roon or Plex Server on regular Macs (MacOS) or Windows machines (Intel NUC). I didn’t go for ROCK and make a machine just for Roon. I’m glad I went that route. I can use my device not only for Roon, but other things. It also makes diagnosing things easier. Also, if something gets broken, I can always have alternative temporary solution to keep things going. For example, if Roon goes down, I can use native Tidal, Spotify. If Plex goes down, I have VLC.
Now that I don’t collect physical music anymore and don’t need to further mess with adding more stuff to my existing music drive (1.5TB), all I really need is Tidal. So a dedicated machine would make more sense for me new for just ROCK use, but I don’t have a NEED for it at the moment.
Bit late to this party
But it strikes me if the OP is unhappy with the appliance route then Roon is not his product. Roon issue a fully functioning (apart from whatever bugs are identified) all in one package , creating an environment where the experience requires minimal IT knowledge. Plug and Play !!
The origins of Roon were a bit DIY with installing software etc but once Nucleus and ROCK came along the full appliance experience was there to allow take over. Their acquisition by a major hardware manufacturer must give some hints, the hardware route may be expanding not reducing.
I am a retired MS developer so I am perfectly capable of doing all the tricky Linux commands if I choose to, I choose not to.
Consider my personal situation , I am not expecting sympathy as it’s mostly self inflicted, 18 months ago and 18 years ago I underwent a neck fusion procedure to correct compacted discs . This has left my dexterity at not far off zero. Imagine choosing not to wear a conventional shirt because it’s too much effort to fasten the buttons. Typing is a bit hit and miss , while normal life is fine, fine motor control is all but gone. Quite simply my hands don’t work properly any more.
Enough of that , but the simple job of creating a NUC from the bits is now really beyond me, I bought mine from a local dealer and he put the bits in and tested it all I did was install ROCK.
The thought of optimizing etc I simply ignore, I had a library running under Windows that I transferred to ROCK and never looked back.
The point I am making is that not everybody is a budding programmer, not everybody wants to learn Linux ,not everyone has the skill set required to do such things. Some people just want to turn on a “Box” and listen (like it used to be ?). Did we hanker after optimizing the sound quality coming from your CD player back in the 80’s No of course we didn’t we chose the box that suited our tastes. I suppose there has always been DIY and tinkering
If that box was created by Roon, Cambridge Audio or Naim is irrelevant. I choose those 3 mainly because I have used all 3 and all 3 have a reasonable app interface. Roon has the metadata on top which reduces the screen time too, so to me wins out.
You pay the money you choose , if Roon has so many drawbacks why pay for it choose CA or someone else.
It’s like saying I hate Ford cars because the indicator stick is on the wrong side. The choice is in the purchase.
Finally a word of warning , both my neurosurgeons believe that the cause of my cervical damage was due to posture, screen position and TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME (my words)
For Ref my system is NUC 10i7 / 32gbRAM / 4Tb SSD to a Naim Uniti Atom HE , with various headphones
I know you were not trying to overemphasize your issues, but I have to say that I am sorry you are going thru them. Hang in there.
That said, second person that says, “move away from Roon” - I think I am being misunderstood. No need to defend the platform.
I have stated may times that I am staying with it, happy, but no 100% happy. Which is perfectly fine. It is not a contradiction, it is perfectly practical decision! Baffles me when people suggest I move away to a different product or that Roon is not for me. Nothing is perfect for everyone nor does it have to be.
UNLESS, of course Roon goes to an “only appliances” model. Then I would have to THINK about it. Not even in that case it would be a given that I would move away. But I will ponder it.
I really wanted to have conversation, out of curiosity, what are people’s take on the dilemma I had when my ROCK broke. Would you have reinstalled the ROCK and just moved on?
No agenda like some posters at the beginning of the thread suggested. I see this forum as conversation on common interests, just wanted to start a topic.
I repeat, like @Mike_O_Neill also a perfectly capable engineer, who would have stayed with the ROCK had it not broken down. Mostly I wanted to have feel of the makeup of the user base how they implement their Roon setup.
And of course, curious about the Nuclei, again just to get a feel of how the company handles supporting those, given the philosophy of exposing to the user only what is strictly necessary.