OK so the title may not make much sense, but i’ll try to explain.
Rock is a superbly lean, incredibly focused little package that we all know lets roon run on a low power compact PC with very little overhead, and remains secure etc. It also offers playback, which is nice.
But, is there a version of this package that is designed for playback only, e.g. an endpoint.
I already run roon from my mac mini server, so id love the clean, simple install of the ROCK but without it wanting to be the server.
Does it make sense, and does it exist, or am I going to have to install Linux myself and use bridge?
Ropieee on a raspberry pi is the nearest equivalent. It is a minimal OS with the roon bridge built in. You configure it from a web page like ROCK.
I run two with ALLO DACs configure and forget.
OH! and free, just donate to show appreciation.
I got roon working on a slightly older HP thin client with two small SSD’s inside. No Fans, no moving parts, and as such it would be ideal for the listening environment.
Any tips on setting that up, or will the unit just appear as an endpoint?
Once Roon Brisge is installed, it will appear in Settings/Audio.
Consider Dietpi: x86 and arm version, easy Roon configuration, no need for real Linux expertise.
A rock running as endpoint suits me perfectly. The hardware I have does it perfectly, and I wont need to upgrade to larger drives, as it wont need to store database.
yeah, that seems a bit redundant. If I have ROCK running on a dead silent thin client based hardware, with an SSD and it plugs into an async USB DAC directly, I can’t see what advantage spending £1500 would bring me.
That’s what I thought you had.
ROCK may work, but the team is quite firm, unsupported and no future guarantees.
Go for it, many people do, but keep backups.
You’re right, I forgot it’s a player only, no backup.
Just a note that a future auto-update may break it, without apology.
But that’s not a big problem, if it happens you need to get something else, but there is no strong reason to get something else now, you’ll have use of it for now.
Most linux builds will be fine (non GUI) and roon. bridge installed.
If you are into a little more fun you can use @Dan_Knight Dietpi for PC based systems that works well with bridge too and is menu install driven like the RPi version…just a bit harder to install. I ran one on an old Intel D510M just for fun as it had SPDIF out setup. Think I still have it somewhere…Uses a Debian base install IIRC, but it was some back so I could be wrong.
“The Native PC is great for those occasions where SBC performance just isn’t enough. Run one of these on any x86_64 PC/server and still get the same great DietPi features and experience. This image is for motherboards with BIOS and/or CSM boot support.”
Dietpi for PC also allows more horsepower left for doing other things like pihole or adding the extension manager and other player other streaming options like Spotify or volumio
if you want to crazy.
My main motivation is that Raspberries have a shared controller for ethernet and USB which is less than ideal. Intel NUCs have an at least reasonable USB implementation.
And I would like to do away with the need to update dietpi.