New NUC install won't boot

Hmm, this is what is stated in section 5 of the ROCK installation guide

Yep, but step 2 of the Rock install guide (before the USB bootable step 5) directs you to the following page -

https://kb.roonlabs.com/ROCK:_Updating_and_Configuring_BIOS_On_Your_NUC

Where section 3 has the following steps:

Once you’ve restored your BIOS settings to the default, make the following changes:

  • Set the proper Boot Settings (you may need to click “Advanced” first) :
    • Use Legacy , not UEFI
    • Set the boot order to boot from your SSD first (you can drag the drives into the proper order if you’re using a mouse. Otherwise you can use the + and - keys
    • Disable Network Boot
    • Enable USB Boot but make sure the SSD has boot priority
    • You may need to enable the M.2 slot, depending on the BIOS version
    • Save your BIOS changes

But I had no drives showing in boot settings, only network drives. Even after updating the bios, I still had no drives here.

To further complicate things, I had nothing but network drives showing when, after this, I tried F10 on startup to get to the boot drive menu - so the USB bootable with Rock on it did not show under the F10 boot menu. To boot from the USB drive I had to go back into Bios, and check ‘boot from USB drive first’ (which isn’t anywhere in the instructions). Only then, on reboot, did the NUC find the ROCK boot on USB. With this in the machine I was able to reboot again before installing ROCK and the drives/options for all the boot drive order were all available. I re-ordered then as per the instructions then rebooted again into the ROCK install.

So after that point where I’d accidentally stumbled on enabling boot USB first, everything was as-per the instructions. Before that, it was totally random.

Regarding Intel troubleshooting, as per this wizard -

Or this document -

Given the steps I worked through (including a bios restore which didn’t work), the conclusion would have been -

Step 4: Identify errors when starting the computer.

Follow these steps if you receive the following error:
A bootable device has not been detected

Check that the drive is detected in the BIOS:
(Use a USB keyboard. A Bluetooth keyboard won’t be able to access the BIOS.)

  1. Press F2 during boot to enter BIOS Setup.
  2. On the Advanced > Boot menu, check the Boot Drive Order.
  3. Press F10 to exit BIOS Setup.

If Boot Drive Order shows No Boot Drive , the drive inside your NUC might have failed. In this case, perform a BIOS recovery (Step 5 below) to restore the drive. If you see this issue from the first boot, reconnect the drive to the board. Make sure the storage drive is inserted correctly and fully seated in the socket.”

I had tried re-seating the drive, even though through all this the m.2 and SSD were showing under PCI and SATA in bios (just not under boot drives) which did nothing. In the end it clearly wasn’t that as the drive wasn’t touched again before it worked using the method I stumbled upon above.

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A good possibility was that whomever wrote the instructions had a drive that was repurposed and thus already had an os on it.

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Maybe, but I really doubt it. The folks that write up the KB articles and other information are really on their game. I would suppose that the interaction with BIOS has evolved from when the instructions were first written and/or there are variants in the BIOS that are shipped.

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Many thanks for your detailed instructions. Was about to send the nuc back to Amazon. Now up and running successfully. Not as straightforward as Rock installation instructions suggested.

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No worries, glad it helped!

I’ll write up the extra steps properly when I get a moment, in case others search for it. But really, the Roon team could do with just updating the NUC/ROCK install guide.

Essentially the ROCK install guide is correct once you get to the point you can boot from the ROCK USB drive, but you have to go into BIOS first by pressing F2 on first startup and enable ‘boot from USB drive first’ before this will work. Once that’s set, reboot and go into BIOS again following the ROCK install instructions for BIOS settings. After that you should be able to install ROCK. Don’t forget to un-check ‘boot from USB drive first’ once you don’t need that any more so the NUC boots from the m.2 drive from then on.

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I have got the same problem as you had and not being a computornerd I would like you to descibe the steps you took!
Best regards
Per

Hi Per,

The steps I took are as in the second half of my post above, past that point the ROCK install guide worked OK.

Since mine’s been up and running for a few months I haven’t checked to see if the guide has been updated.

Try the above and see if you still have a problem, if not post back here and I’ll see if I can remember what I did (I’m not a computer geek either, I just kind of managed to partly accidentally stumble across the way to do it)!

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Thank you James! I managed to change to legacy boot and got boot order right so now I have installed Rock but it asks for network adress?! Where di I find it and where shall I write it?

Easy one! I just had to plug in the ethernetcable! Sorry for this! It is getting late in Sweden and I have tampered along for quite a while! Now on to Codecs if I can handle that one!

I did it! Its up and running! But now I cannot access my files!? I use the adress used before but it does not work! I will check the network!

If your music files are on a NAS, use the IP address rather than the name.

Thank you, but it is on a windows computor and it does not work!

Thanks a lot ! This solved the issue with the NUC8i7 ! :slightly_smiling_face:

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:+1:t2: glad it worked for you!

HI, I’m going through this now and have set things as described above with usb boot priority and am about to jump in but the thing is, I have WIN 10 on my installed drive and legacy boot also shows no boot drive. the NMVe shows up elsewhere but not in this list, only windows boot manager on Part 1 in the uefi list

Am I missing something or is this normal?

EDIT: So I jumped in and everything did work out quite easily but the instructions do not make the process as clear as it could be. In my case there were no drives to reorder regarding boot order that led me to believe there was nowhere to install Roon.

Yep. there is something different about the NUC8 BIOS where the previous description doesn’t really come close to matching what the new process is. This was my recollection of the BIOS process:

After you have updated the BIOS. Turn the NUC off. (Just press the power down and it will power down.

Hold down F2 as you turn on the NUC.

Press F9 to set BIOS to factory defaults.

Select the Legacy Tab.

Check that Legacy Boot is enabled.

Underneath the box, click the blue “Advanced” box

A screen titled Intel Visual BIOS will come up and underneath that are a row of boxes.

Select Devices

Then select the PCI tab

Check that the M.2 Slot is checked (it may be turned off).

At the bottom of the screen hit F10 to save everything.

Hold down the F2 key as the NUC reboots. It will bring up the Visual BIOS screen again.

Click on the Legacy Tab. The M.2 drive should now be listed

Drag the M.2 SSD drive to the first in order.

Make sure Enable USB Boot is still enabled.

Select F10 to save and exit.

When the NUC powers up it may try to boot from the network. If you are getting a message like that just press the power button to turn off the NUC.

Now you can proceed to Step 3 of the ROCK installation instructions.

Is this your recollection?
One problem seems to be the M.2 drive slot may be disabled by default. The other confusing problem seems to be that many of these changes don’t register until after you’ve rebooted.
I suppose if you are a ‘computer guy’ you take this for granted and do it reflexively. For the rest of us mortals, it’s more like a room full of monkeys with keyboards. You can get Shakespeare, it just takes a while.

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Yes it pretty much happened the way you describe except my ssd never showed up at all. Having usb enabled,I just figured I could get back to here if I ran into problems.

One thing I’ll add and hopefully this will be rectified soon is that Intel upped the bios about 10 days ago v.0079 and it will not load at all. either from windows, F2 from usb nor hold the front button 3.5 seconds. It’s pretty well documented on the intel support site. Given the newness of the bios I figured I wouldn’t lose anything by staying with the last version till intel fix this.

TBH if your machine is working well, there is no point in updating the BIOS unless it fixes something you need fixing, or adds additional device support or performance improvement that you want adding.

Yes agreed, I was just doing it out of completeness to the instructions. Gonna forget about it as long as it works.