Could be a compatibility issue between AudioLinux and the GMKTec NucBox G5 (N97) computer. But, this is a bit off-topic since this thread is about running Roon OS on this mini PC, not AudioLinux. I’m a fan of AudioLinux for endpoint devices, but it can not deliver the appliance-like experience that Roon OS does when running Roon Server.
I’m also curious to know why you want to connect a DAC directly to the computer running Roon Server. While this can be convenient for testing, sound quality will be worse than using a dedicated Roon bridge. The GMKtec NucBox G5 also has a fan that will make some noise. Because of this, it’s best to put this small (but noisy) computer in a closet or office next to your Internet router and far from your listening environment.
I don’t want to discourage you, but without understanding the “why” behind what you are doing, I would offer that a better solution is to install Roon OS on your GMKtec Mini PC and then build a Roon endpoint (possibly running AudioLInux) using a less powerful (fanless) computer. You’ll then stream from Roon Server to the endpoint device over your home network.
@Dirk_De_Taey
Sorry to tell you, but the specific USB-drivers for GMKtec are not inserted in the ROCK installation files. So you will not be able to use the USB-connection on a GMKtec as audio-output when using ROCK.
There are other linux-distributions on which the USB-output will work (DietPi, …)
On the other hand, using the USB-output of your Roon-server is not very good practice. It is always much beter to use a (cheap) network-bridge like ex. a Raspberry Pi with RoPieee. Works perfect and so can bypass the USB-port-issue of GMKtec.
Brother in law still happily using his little pink N97 Rock/Mock. My G2 plus has become an OpnSense router in the meantime. And my core is now on a Proxmox VM (actually 2 of them, one in each home). But still loving my BIL’s N97 which keeps ticking with nary a reboot in 6 months.
I’ve just setup a GMTek G2 Pro as a replacement MOCK as I was running ROCK on an over-powered NUC (i7-1360p) which I want to repurpose as a Plex server which can take advantage of its iGPU for video transcoding.
I was dubious about how well it would run on such a small device but considered I could always use the N150 based G2 for something else if it didn’t work out.
I went for the G2 because I specifically wanted two ethernet interfaces as this worked very well in my previous setup - Roon sits in two VLANs one of which contains my Linn streamers and the other my control endpoints / WiFi. The G2 has two ports whereas the G3 has only one. In my previous NUC configuration I had to add the special PCI-e expansion module to get the second NIC as a USB NIC would never be discovered automatically after a reboot.
Install couldn’t have been easier, it took about 1 minute, the only thing I’ve had to do is jump into the G2’s BIOS to set it to power on automatically after a power cut.
I don’t have a big library (<1000 albums) but all my FLAC is stored on a NAS and accessed by ROCK over SMB so have no need for local storage.
First impressions are that it works flawlessly. It’s slightly busy at startup for a couple of minutes but then settles down very nicely and I can see from a power meter that it sits consuming about 8W when I’m playing a 192/24 stereo album on one streamer.
Next project is to migrate all my data to a new NAS and put Plex on the more powerful NUC so I can switch off an enterprise server with 16 disks in it which consumes a steady 300W. The replacement system with more storage and expansion capacity should consume about a sixth of the power despite being much more powerful. The N150 seems to have addressed the Roon requirement very well and very economically.
@neil_burton Out of curiosity what are you using for storage? I went for “converged” and ended up with a huge beast - 128 threads, 80tb in RAIDZ2, lots of SATA SSDs and NVME, a GPU, etc. Chews up 180+w at idle, but massively capable of local inference, etc. My Roon server is on 2 threads and doesn’t even break a sweat. Would love to at some point in next few years get my wattage down again - but if I want 80tb usable with disk redundancy… well, then I have a lot of spinning rust that gulps power in any case/processor/etc.
My NUC is dying and now Roon server refuses to load. So for £140 I think this will be a better choice than another NUC as I don’t often multistream and only do a little headphone DSP jiggery pokery. Thank you @David_Snyder for the tip.
