Is Roon on Linux more reliable?

If you really want to run Roon Core on a minimal install, you can install e.g. Linux Debian with only ssh and standard system utilities (no desktop!). Next install the Roon dependencies and run the Roon install script. If you’re familiar with terminal commands and ssh, then this makes a Roon Core without all unnecessary whistles and bells.

It doesn’t have to be a NUC to run ROCK; just anything else isn’t formally supported. If you are comfortable in both Linux and Windows I would be fairly sure you’d be fine getting the ROCK OS to run. The key thing to getting it installed is the BIOS has to be in legacy boot and not UEFI regardless of what system you’re trying to install it on.

I for example run ROCK on a Ryzen 3 3200G based mini PC and it’s 100% stable and reliable; stays running until I shut it down. Have had it running for weeks at a time without touching it at all. It took a couple of minutes to install ROCK as well. Built the PC, swapped the BIOD to legacy boot (which to be fair as the most challenging bit to do), stuck a USB stick in with the ROCK image and it took but a couple of minutes to install and to be up and running.

I ran Roon on a Windows 10 laptop and had the same issue - having to start Roon manually every time I booted up the laptop.

Although not well documented, you can add Roon to the Windows startup folder as detailed here:

Note that you copy the Roon shortcut from the desktop, not a copy of the executable. With that, Roon will start with Windows 10.

I’m now running Roon on a NUC, but can’t say that it’s anything other than a considerable convenience to do so. The sound, at least with Roon Ready hardware doesn’t seem to have changed.

There is no reason to expect a difference in SQ unless you’re talking about fan noise, etc.

This is a great news ! I will take your experience into account! Thank you!

Did a short post on the build - totally painless. I thought it was going to be difficult but it just worked :slight_smile:

Hi
Do you also have a DAC connected directly to the core? If yes, don’t you have performance issue with USB hardware?

Bye

Hi Saverio,

usually use Ropieee on Digione Signature as endpoint. Also tried the DAC connected to USB from the core, from my desktop (NUC, also running Linux) and USB from a pi4, no big differences (maybe my hearing is not what it used to be).

The core btw. runs on a Celeron J4105 with NFS, Sambe, minidlna, backups, the usual stuff.

If you are familiar with linux: You can run the Roon Desktop under wine, there is an installation script from Harry ten Berge, the developer of Ropieee (thanks).

Cheers

Very nice work! my compliments!

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First, I think your issues are Windows related. I’ve been running on an old MacBook Pro since Nov 2019. Totally stable and handles multiple streams fine. I’m awaiting delivery on a Leveno M90n and will install ROCK on it. My primary listen place is in another room, so I’m using an RP4 endpoint with USB to DAC.

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I’ve run rock and windows 10 on 2 non Nuc platforms (intel) interchangeably with no issues for either, windows can of course support windows specific drivers for some dacs to get their best performance but it can also support running of extensions, and give more feedback on performance and temps etc going on the system, but I haven’t seen or heard any real difference in performance or sound quality or reliability for that matter.

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It can make a difference depending on the driver you use. For example, with W10 I could use Deivalet’s AIR driver or shut down the driver and let Roon use their own proprietary streaming solution to the hardware.

That certainly made a difference in the sound. I agree that with ROC running on a NUC that all goes away.

I was talking about Roon with Windows 10 or Linux. I got no difference in SQ.

Hello there,

I’ve been using Roon on Linux for a couple of years, on an old Mac mini. I did a basic Ubuntu install and later added the low-latency option. It’s been rock solid. I only reboot it when I update Ubuntu every 3-4 months or so. If you can run it on a dedicated machine and are comfortable with Linux, it’s the way to go.

My current version is Ubuntu 19.10 (GNU/Linux 5.3.0-53-lowlatency x86_64).

LF.

You will be surprised, I don’t run ROCK on a nuc but a fanless prebuilt pc it runs perfectly.

As a person with over 30 years experience in Windows, Linux and Mac (and a few older things), as a general rule Linux is ALWAYS more stable and Mac is pretty close to linux, but you have to weight that up with some other things like how hard is it for YOU to fix it if it goes wrong. Of course there are always exceptions. But there’s a reason why all the world phones, TV’s and critical servers run on linux or BSD (very similar to linux for purpose of this conversation.

However if it’s hard for you to fix that’s going to really bring down your uptime figure if something goes wrong. If you’re technically minded and like to learn new things, linux might be right for you.

For me I’ve only ever Run Roon on linux - that’s about 4 years now I think and nowadays I run it inside docker. I’ve not had one issue.

Hope that answers your question a little more directly, (not intended to be a Windows vs Mac vs Linux discussion, they each have their strengths and weaknesses).

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I have a support ticket open about this minor issue, but it’s something to think about because others also have experienced it: When my NUC was running Roon on Windows 10, it imported every file on my NAS except for one in an atypical file format, but, when I set up ROCK on the same NUC and re-scanned, it couldn’t import about 30 mp3 files that it characterized as “corrupt.” Those files continue to play just fine using JRiver on another Windows computer that uses the same NAS files for its library. When I have had file corruption in the past, the files wouldn’t play, period, so I doubt they are corrupted in any way.

The filenames don’t have forbidden characters on which Linux chokes and, per some advice on this forum, I have tried converting a few from mp3 back to mp3 using DBPoweramp, but I haven’t had success getting ROCK to import them.

It’s not a huge deal because I have a gazillion successfully-imported files, but now a few albums are incomplete.

All things being equal, I would have preferred to keep Windows, but they weren’t: I migrated to ROCK because I had some overheating issues on Windows when I started to oversample everything to DSD256. The importation issues are of concern to me, though, especially since others have had them as well and there’s no clear solution to them.

Mike - see my reply to your support question on your MP3 issue…

I did. Thanks, Geoff.

No, I don’t have a DAC directly connected to the Core.
I have many Roon endpoints, mostly RPis with Ropiee.
The vm with Core is doing just that + Roon Extensions.