Hello everyone,
If you use Linux and have no Windoze systems, like me, then you will find that it is not possible to alter, or install DSP filters on your Roon Server.
Roon still treats Linux as an also ran which is surprising given that Roon is best installed on Linux !
I have a workaraound to get DSP capability.
Instal virtualbox on your Linux system - this is easy as all distros support this.
Get a free copy of Win 10/11 from the MS site - this is legal - you’ll get pestered by MS but that’s all
Set up a Win VM using virtualbox in Linux.
In the Win VM, install the Roon 64bit application.
Unzip the download and copy the opengl32.dll file into the Roon Application directory in Windoze - usually C:Users\ [username]\AppData\Local\Application\Roon
Then run Roon in Windoze…
You now have a Windoze Roon Application in Linux…and you can connect to your Roon Core and can access all your audio endpoints and edit your DSP filters.
To use DSP, a desktop client (and possibly large tablet) is needed. Since there is no native Linux app (only Roon Server and Roon Bridge) either the Windows or macOS application is needed.
For the Linux desktop, the choice is a virtual machine (Boxes, Virtualbox etc.) running Windows or using the Windows app with Wine or Bottles.
But I think you don’t need much power on the VM as it only has to deal with the DSP on Roon Remote - which has low graphics and cpu requirements.
If you wanted the Roon Core then you are in a different ball park - but who in their right mind would run Roon on a Win VM on a Linux machine - you would just run Roon Core natively on the Linux box.
I use virtualbox as I’ve never been able to get Wine working with the software I need that only works on Windoze… knx ETS5 which is essential for my home control network.
I’ve heard about Linux taking over the desktop tomorrow since the 1990s. Never happened, never will, and no sane person uses it for general desktop purposes.
I am sure if you donate a few hundred kilodollars to Roon Labs they might consider dedicating development resources to something that would affect single digits of potential users.
Right now I’d much rather they make sure Roon client doesn’t crash when you search for a “wrong” thing, not waste time porting Roon remote to something utterly niche. Might as well demand a BeOS client.
Yes indeed - it remains a mystery to me why Roon does not have a Linux desktop.
Roon Core is Linux - the mac stuff is all but Linux - so why not go the extra mile…
I have been successful in bypassing this hole in Roon offerings using a VM - hope this helps others.
I assume that you have been successful doing the same using Wine - so there are two routes now.
Let’s hope that Roon starts offering DSP capability on Linux, Android, and iOS at some point.
Roon is such a good product that I am prepared to put the effort in to compensate for these shortcomings, but it still seems that Roon is deaf to addressing them.
There are some enterprise versions of Windows that offer some significant benefits over consumer versions of Windows, take LTSC as an example.
I can very much see a use case where someone might run Roon on a Windows 10 LTSC VM on a box with a beefy multi-core CPU. They might run HQPlayer and utilize GPU pass through for CUDA offloading too.
With Snaps and Flatpak, this isn’t necessarily an issue any more. However, I think it’s likely that every Roon user running a Linux desktop accounts for less than 1% of all subscribers.
Apologies, Martin.
I was not insinuating that you were saying that you are wasting money …
Just simply that if one does not have/use windows, then these two approaches avoid the use of windows.
I personally regard purchasing windows as a waste of my money.
