I’m shortly looking to install Rock on a NUC but don’t have ethernet near the screen and keyboard that I will be using. Is there a means to complete Rock Installation step 6 (installation of codecs) whilst still being offline at that stage?
e.g. I wont have an IP address at this point so I’m presuming that I wont be able to use the web UI from another device. Can i use the NUCs own screen and keyboard in some way to view an attached USB stick and transfer the codec file into the appropriate Rock folder?
My only computer experience is Windows laptops so I’m struggling to visualise the NUC (or ROCK) UI. The documented instructions all refer to the Roon web UI, hence my asking this question.
Thanks very much, I’m looking forward to getting this up and running.
You can download and install the codec later, or download it in advance, and copy to the NUC. This is done using the network storage location on the server.
However, without an Internet connection, you won’t be able to sign into the new Roon server.
Thanks, I think that I am trying to do what you say: download in advance and copy to the NUC. I’m trying to visualise how to do that, hence my question “Can i use the NUCs own screen and keyboard in some way to view an attached USB stick and transfer the codec file into the appropriate Rock folder?”
I’m trying to complete as much of the install as possible before moving the NUC to it’s ethernet connected operational position behind a sofa, from which point it will be headless.
The install guide describes that Rock will identify it’s IP address and you use the Web UI to complete step 6 codec installation. But when I move to my IP connection I lose the monitor and so wont be able to read the IP address in order to use the Web UI. So basically I’m trying to finesse my way round this Catch 22 loop. One way (this one) seems to be complete the codec installation before moving the NUC in the first place. But I am obviously open to other suggestions.
Thanks Geoff, I’m sure it could but I’d need to find out how to do that. The router’s been in place for many years and completely ignored to date. Not sure i even have the instructions unfortunately.
It still seems that the simplest solution for me (if it’s possible) would be to copy the codecs from an attached USB to the Rock codecs folder before removing the screen/keyboard from the NUC. Which comes back to my question. Is this possible Y/N?
If the answer is N then yes I imagine I will have to try something along the lines that you suggest. And if the answer is Y, how is that achieved? In theory it would be the simplest route for me if the NUC/Rock combo enables this somehow.
Can I ask a potentially quite dumb question - why not buy a long ethernet cable and run it from the router to where the monitor is? I’m having a tough time imagining why you can’t easily manage to have it connected to the monitor/keyboard/ and the router at the same time. After that, you can move it to adjacent to the router.
Also, rereading, perhaps you don’t even have a monitor and keyboard/mouse if you just have a laptop? If you don’t have those, you won’t be able to set up the ROCK. You do have to push a few buttons. Not a lot, especially if you use one of these little bad boys, but you do need to have it connected, and a NUC or NUCbox won’t come with it’s own - not sure if I’m misreading your post, so apologies if I am.
No,there is no shell or UI for you to interact with on ROCK. If you’re a tinkerer you can boot from a bootable Linux USB-Stick to do it. The “normal” way to do it is though to copy the file over the network from your PC (after you moved the ROCK in your case). See also:
The only reason for that is to click on a question mark that leads you to the guide above and that is also already linked in the install instructions step 6.
You can do this by following the instructions hereor by visiting the web UI listed on the console of the machine, click on the “?” next to “Missing Codecs” and follow the instructions.
Here is a guide on how to access ROCK’s web configuration page after you moved it to its place and connected it to your network (already linked in the guide shared above):
Sorry, one more clarification… you can add the CODECs after the ROCK is running headless - the ROCK storage location is exposed as a windows / SMB share, so you can access it from your windows laptop in the “network” location, so long as you don’t have any weird firewall stuff set up on your laptop.
The only thing you need attached to set the ROCK up is a monitor & keyboard (and mouse if you need to mess with BIOS and don’t feel like figuring out keyboard shortcuts). Once it’s done, you can attach it to a network cable elsewhere, and reboot it headless and connected to the router, it will get an IP address automatically. Then you can add codecs via windows share from your laptop (and obviously it needs to remain connected to router via ethernet to achieve this, and to function as a Roon server). I hope this helps.
Thanks for all these clear answers and helpful info. I now understand that I can only transfer the codec file from a PC across the network to the Rock codecs folder. Just so that I understand this properly, is the Roon Web UI the only way to accomplish this? Alternatively, will Rock show up as a network share in Windows and I could perhaps copy across via that route?
I should have explained earlier that my desk/keyboard/monitor set up is at one end of the house but the router is in another room at the other end which is what causes this problem.
Thanks, and sorry for the dweeb questions. I’m trying to visualise what I’m doing before launching into things.
This is great news that i can just make a network transfer to copy the codecs. Does this mean that I don’t need to worry about knowing the device’s IP address at all? I can just add \Rock as a network share and do it via windows. If so, much simpler.
Long story short: Try the device name, it will probably work. Fall back to the IP only if it doesn’t.
Longer story:
Most modern routers offer a name service on the local network, so the router knows both the device name (which is told to the router by the device) and the associated IP address. Therefore, if you use the name to access it, the router translates it to the IP that is needed on the technical level.
Cheaper routers (e.g., some that are provided by ISPs for free, for instance the Vodafone Station) skimp on this and don’t provide a name service, and in this case the user needs to use the IPs for addressing.
Thanks all, I’m piecing it together and see the path. Thanks for all the links, I think i have everything I need so I’m poised to give it a go and see what happens. One last question of clarification. After Step 3 copying the codecs, Step 4 in the instructions says “Restart Roon Server using the Roon OS web interface”. If instead, I switch off and reboot the NUC at this stage, will Rock automatically see the new codecs that way, or do I still need to revisit the Roon OS web interface?
Again a dweeb question (I am sure!), but the devil is in the details… Thanks for helping me to unravel this.
Just to clarify, by “switching off”, you mean by a short press of the physical power button on the NUC? Pulling the power or pressing the button for more than 5 seconds is not the best way to switch off the NUC…
Thanks to all the input above I am making progress although I have hit a glitch due to a completely different problem.
I now have a functioning Rock connected to my network with an IP address which I have logged and successfully used with the web UI. The problem now is that I cant access \Rock\Data in order to transfer codecs. Whichever route I try, Windows throws up a security window asking for username/password. I don’t have that for Rock and it won’t accept my Windows credentials, so I’m at a loss.
I read the security article that Blackjack posted above. That solution involves tinkering with the Windows Registry to relieve certain dafault security protections which seems a bit drastic. Before going down that road, are there any other obvious (simpler) tricks? I have searched the forum but couldn’t find a troubleshooting FAQ that might cover it.