NUC with Roon ROCK doesn't boot anymore, stuck in "Welcome to GRUB!" screen?

Roon Software Discussion ROCK
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I have had to change a BIOS setting on my NUC7i7BNH, changing it to ‘low power’ profile as I am preparing it to a new case, the AKASA Plato X7. As the Plato X7 officially doesn’t support the NUC7i7BNH (only the NUC7i5BNH and the NUC7i3BNH) their support recommended to change this setting. But that’s beside the point, because I have not touched or removed the board from the original NUC case yet.

However, since fiddling with the BIOS, my NUC doesn’t boot Roon ROCK anymore.

What I see on screen now is the following:

"Welcome to GRUB!

Failed to load when flipping back to B. Roon OS and the previous version installed both refuse to boot. You will need to manually run the recovery process using the USB installer.

Hit enter to reboot."

Okay, so I still have the latest version of the USB installer on a USB stick. I insert the USB stick, press F10 while turning on the NUC so that I get to the boot device menu and there I select “UEFI: USB: USB 2.0 Flash Drive : Part 0 : OS Bootloader” as I also did when installing Roon in the first place.

When doing this, I just get to see:

“Welcome to GRUB!”

Otherwise, nothing happens. My keyboard even doesn’t work, CTRL-ALT-DEL doesn’t do anything.

I’ve used this NUC for 5 years without issues and I just bought the AKASA case for it.
What to do to get my NUC back alive?

I am not familiar at all with UEFI and any Linux stuff, so I really don’t know what to do and Google didn’t give me any information I understand. Hoping someone can help me?

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I have no idea why it does not boot in the first place, unfortunately. It does get to GRUB, so it’s probably not a BIOS bootloading issue, but did you try switching low power mode off and back to the original setting? If that works and somehow low power mode leads to failure, you might be stuck anyway.

Regarding reinstall, it is my understanding that current ROCK installers require UEFI. (I inquired this with Danny recently but can’t find it now). So I think you have to switch the BIOS to UEFI mode. There should be a simple setting somewhere in the BIOS

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I did make progress already. I turned off Legacy in the boot options in the BIOS. Then still Roon doesn’t boot, but I can run the USB installer. From there, I did a recovery. And then I can reboot into Roon again.

This was quite a scary experience but everything seems to work again now.

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Even though I now know how to solve this issue, the problem keeps coming back.

I know now that the solution is: reset BIOS to default settings, then turn of Legacy, then boot from USB with Roon ROCK installer and go through the Roon ROCK recovery process. My database and history remains intact, but I must de-authorize the previous Roon ROCK each time.

However, for moving my NUC motherboard into the AKASA Plato X7 I need to change the BIOS power profile to “Low power” and change the cooling profile to “Fanless”. When I do that, initially it works, but after turning off the NUC for a while and starting it up from cold, the “Welcome to Grub!” issue comes back.

What is going on here?

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I wonder if the CMOS battery has failed, or the connector isn’t properly connecting? See:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000006787/intel-nuc.html

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No the BIOS is fine, I don’t get messages about the battery, the clock is running at the right time and date, and the settings intact.

It really is something with the Grub configuration. Cannot figure out what.

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This is kind of the problem. I’d suggest recruiting someone who is familiar with Linux and the GRUB bootloader and who can sit at the terminal and figure this out. I worked with computers for forty years, but am still extremely upset when I see a “Welcome to GRUB!” prompt. It’s never good. :slight_smile:

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No idea why it keeps coming back… maybe time to buy a new NUC but I just purchased the Akasa Plato X7…

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So, today the AKASA Plato X7 got delivered. Installing the NUC7i7BNB in it was only 10 minutes work. I configured the BIOS in the Cooling section to “Fanless”, in the Power section to “Low Power mode”, in the Peripherals I turned off Bluetooth, WiFi, onboard Audio, and the likes. I turned off Legacy and also in the UEFI boot options I turned off the network option.

Starting it up, again the Welcome to Grub issue.

Now I know the resolution: I pull the power cable, wait 10 seconds, plug it, insert USB key with latest Roon ROCK installer, press F2 and select the UEFI USB disk to boot, from there follow the recovery process, pull the USB key and reboot. And then, Roon ROCK is running fine.

The sound improvement is noticeable. I have another high end Roon Server and where before I could distinguish the NUC from the high end server, now I cannot. Admittedly, now I also have the NUC in the Akasa case powered by a Farad Super 3 with upgraded fuse. It sounds simply amazing.

Problem is: when I turn off the NUC and a couple of minutes power it on again (which I did to put it in its permanent location in the house) again it won’t boot. I must again attach a screen and keyboard, and do the F2 recovery procedure. Once the Roon ROCK installation is recovered, it works again. Problem is, in its permanent location I don’t have a screen and keyboard so it is a big hassle. Fortunately I won’t power it off, I leave it on 24/7, but at times I need to cut the power. Plus, I want it to work.

What could be the issue? The SSD is renewed not long ago, it is a Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 NVMe M2 drive. Should I replace it again? The memory is one SODIMM 8Gb Crucial DDR4-2400 1.2V CL17. Should I replace memory? Or is the motherboard faulty?

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I’d bet that it’s not the hardware, it’s GRUB (and ROCK, I guess).

See grub2 - Stuck in GRUB Rescue Mode - Ask Ubuntu

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This morning I will completely erase the SSD and then reinstall ROCK from scratch. See if that works.

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So, this morning I get my screen down to the utility room, turn off the NUC now in the Akasa case - has been running all night. I pull the power. Before going into all the hassle of reinstalling, I put the power back after 10 seconds and boot up. No problem, Roon is running. Shut down with the power button. Wait 10 seconds and boot up. No problem, Roon is running again.

I’m not going to reinstall ROCK if it is working now. I just hope the problem won’t come back. Oh well, I’ll deal with it then…

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Just for the record I use the same NUC board in the same case for more than 5 years with no changed to slower cpu etc ie running full speeds and no issues at all. Do make sure to get the good heatsink compound…I think I used arctic brand.

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I think you scared the problem away with the reinstall threat. :rofl:

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