Is Intel NUC 11 compatible with ROCK?

Does anyone know whether the latest Intel NUC 11 will work for Roon ROCK installation?

As mentioned in the Roon Help Center, for Roon ROCK to work the Devices must support Legacy Boot

For the NUC 11, during the BIOS setting / Boot Priority step, the UEFI Boot is activated/selected and greyed out and cannot be disabled, and there is not Legacy Boot option to select (please see attached photo).

Does it mean that the NUC 11 is not compatible for running Roon ROCK?

Does anyone has experienced installing Roon ROCK on a NUC 11 Gen?

Thank you.

Hello and welcome to the community.

The short answer is that the NUC 11 models will NOT work with ROCK at this time, because ROCK requires the legacy boot mode - and this does not exist on the 11th generation NUCs.

Itā€™s possible that ROCK will be made compatible with the UEFI boot mode in the future, but this is not yet confirmed and no timescales for availability have been given.

Your only options currently are to install Windows or Linux on the NUC 11 and use these OSes to run a Roon Core.

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Thank you very much Geoff for your immediate help!

I assume you have already bought this?

If not the 10th generation work fine once you finally get the legacy mode enabled.
There is a thread that I took part in explaining the multiple steps to enable this, if itā€™s not too late for you.

Otherwise Geoff has you covered.

Thanks Michael.
Too bad I have already bought the NUC 11.
Will install Linux Ubuntu and Roon Core Server for the time being - until the next version of Roon ROCK is available for NUC Gen 11.
Hopefully, Roon Labs will make ROCK compatible with the NUC 11 very soon, which is unavoidable because it is even difficult to find a NUC 10 now!

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Danny has been talking about it for a while, so lets hope so.
Ubuntu should work nicely and actually give you some additional flexibility if you want to run additional tools extension manager etc.
I have my old Gen 7 i5 NUC Core sitting here waiting for me to build and test another setup like Ubuntu or Audio Linux etc.
But generally Rock works so well I cannot bring myself to replace it.

Is there a better Linux distro to run Roon Core instead of Linuz Ubuntu?

Iā€™m no expert in this area, but Iā€™m sure you will get multiple responses to this question.
Itā€™s as good a place as any to start and itā€™s well supported

Yes. Iā€™m using Audio-Linux (www.audio-linux.com) and IMHO is the best OS rather than ROCK, for using Roon Core. You can also use HQPlayer binded to Roon.

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Evening all, still subscribed to Roon but not been using as much as hoped due to HW limitations, but still enthusiastic and indeed discussing with a Roon enthusiast on AVForums and it prompted a revisit.

Have an opportunity to invest in a NUC 11 (rare the budget presents itself but it does and would hate to miss the opportunity) but now aware (thanks to advice received) that it is not ā€˜yetā€™ a supported platform.

Just to ask if there has been any official or muted change/improvement in direction from the August 2021 post please?

Apologies, Iā€™m revisiting probably many aspects of Roon that I previously covered so apologies to all in advance if Iā€™m retreading in posts to come.

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Thereā€™s a fair bit of discussion of what RoonOS 2.0 will bring when launched. Danny (CEO of Roon) has engaged on the topic, and there has been some back and forth on whether RoonOS 2.0 will support UEFI boot, which is the key dependency needed for NUC11ā€™s. Iā€™d have a hard time imagining it wonā€™t be included, given that ROCK is a key offering and NUC10ā€™s are increasingly in short supply.

So thatā€™s one personā€™s guess that they (NUC11ā€™s) will be supported this year, but I donā€™t work for Roon and they (correctly in my mind) donā€™t often make firm commitments.

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Many thanks Johnny and as a very entry level Roon person, what you say makes sense. And apologies, some of my Q&A will show my limited knowledge.

In fact I was about to launch into a load of Q&A but then I though it might be more appropriate to make a new post based on what I have now and ask for advice about how to make a road map toward a proper Roon environment.

Just to ask, is there a forum section for newbies to describe their back yard, what they are wanting to achieve and how best to do it? ā€¦ from experienced longer term users?

Many thanks for the quick reply. Answers on larger infrastructure aside, Iā€™m going to bet on the 11 being an option.

Well welcome!

Itā€™s totally acceptable to post a new thread titled something like ā€œHelp with my new Roon setup with X/Y/Zā€. Usually folks are happy to help, you seem like a thoughtful person. We may point you to previous threads - a lot of topics do get hashed and rehashed but that is the nature of forums!

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Nice one Johnny. Appreciate that and that is exactly what Iā€™ll do right now.

I have a feeling I did ask similar a couple of years back but we are in a better place with better options now so itā€™s worth to ask again.

I remember the support community on here to be hands on helpful and not so elitist like some AV forums can be ā€¦ where you need to earn your stripes before you dare ask a question! :slight_smile: ā€¦ newbie post coming up! And thanks again

I made a rash decision of getting NUC 11 with BIOS version TNTGL35. After trying everything I am keep getting ā€œbootable device not detectedā€. So I assume Rock still doesnt support NUC 11?

Yes, ROCK is still not supported on NUC11!
I just use Linux Ubuntu OS and install Roon Core server.

Thanks Desmond. But why Linux instead of Windows? Iā€™m not very familiar with Linux OS.

Linux Ubuntu is a lightweight OS that you can download for free. And it is suitable for running Roon Core server. Of course you can use another OS for Roon Core installation. I think the Roon Nucleus is also based on a Linux OS.

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Ahhā€¦ I see. Iā€™m such an idiot. The NUC 11 that I got came with preinstalled windows 11. I did a clean format hoping to install only ROCK OS on it. THEN I find out ROCK doesnt support NUC 11. And now Iā€™m thinking if I should reinstall windows or try Linux. :slight_smile: Anyways thanks clearing stuff for me Desmond.

IMO, the solution is to simply install a version of Linux & Roon server.
The end result is the same.

I run Roon server on an EFI boot PC. I simply installed Ubuntu, then the Roon dependencies and the of course Roon server.

Some ideas:
How to install DietPi - DietPi.com Docs see Native PC/NUC
Media Systems Software Options - DietPi.com Docs
Get Ubuntu | Download | Ubuntu

The result is impressive. Quick and snappy, responsive, and much less bog down from Windows running background processes like indexing, and other nonsense.
So all in all a great experience.

I have both Rock and Ubuntu/Server solutions. Both work perfectly fine.
I prefer Ubuntu, as you can do more with the OS and address multiple music drives, without having to recopy/transfer music files.

Additionally, IMO Ubuntu/Linux with Roon server is a slicker more responsive experience Vā€™s Windows/Roon on the same machine.

HP EliteDesk G5 800, Intel Core i7-9700T Processor, 16gb ram, 500gb ssd.

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