High CPU usage on Arch Linux

Hi Guys. I am the author of Audiophile Linux OS. I don’t know if you heard
of it, but it’s a free operating system based on Arch Linux. I am now building
the 4th release and I am thinking it would be nice thing to offer AP-Linux
users an option to install Roon server. I tried it and it’s working out of
the box. But there’s one problem. After selecting my DAC and setting up the
zone, the CPU usage starts to spike. I doesn’t matter if you play the music
or don’t, the Roon server process is always at 30% of CPU usage.

top command
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES %CPU %MEM TIME+ S COMMAND
553 root 20 0 1187.1m 143.8m 32.5 1.8 0:47.68 S Main

And this is the process that is doing it:
/opt/RoonServer/Mono/bin/RoonAppliance --debug --gc=sgen --server RoonAppliance.exe -watchdogport=37999

I am using custom 4.8.11 realtime kernel.

I don’t know if it’s a bug of some kind, or something else. But our users are
very demanding when it comes to software and hardware. They are building
the best PC machines for music. Everything has to be silent. SSD disks and CPU’s
without fans. Giving that Roon server software is taking so much CPU power even
when it’s idle, it would be an overkill to install Roon server on some silent PC’s
or devices without fans. Not to mention how CPU usage is critical for sound
processing. Can you help me identify what’s the problem?

Thanks and nice regards,

Marko Lerota
Audiophile Linux

Hi Marko,

Was this a fresh installation of Roon where you did a fresh import? In that case Roon is likely scanning and analyzing your audio files. Depending on the size of the library the scan can take some time and its status can be checked by clicking the spinning wheel in the upper right corner of the Roon interface. If the wheel isn’t there then scanning is done.

Analysis can take a long time and is CPU intensive. You can check status of background audio analysis in Roon preferences. You can disable it to see if that removes the CPU load.

Yes, that may be it. It was a fresh install. I will check it out as soon as I get home and let you know.

Thanks

Roon does not advocate running Core on the same device that’s connected to the DAC. Rather it’s preferred that the device connected to the DAC is a low power SOC type device running Roon Bridge. It makes the music server cpu utilisation somewhat irrelevant other than from a performance perspective.

Yes you were right. Scanning was the problem. The files and covers are imported fast, but the “Background Audio Analysis” scanning is taking long time.

Thanks guys.