Nucleus/ROCK drivers

Roon Software Discussion ROCK
1

Nucleus is for the not so techie under us, so I have a question which I have no idea how the driver side works in ROCK.

Will all windows drivers, maninly the USB drivers provided by the various hardware manufacturers work under Linux in ROCK? Or do I need Linux drivers from those manufacturers?

As an example I currently have 2 DAC’s connect via USB. The ifi micro iDSD and the built in of the Mcintosh MA7900. Will they work?

I also connect to a squeezebox and a Bluesound Node, but as far as I can understand, these will not be an issue under ROCK.

2

Windows drivers do not work on the Linux kernel. ROCK is Linux based.

We’ve included a set of drivers that will work for most USB products… is there a particular driver you’ve installed on Windows for your gear?

3

I installed a USB driver for the McIntosh and ifi also provides an USB driver.

On the ifi site the following is stated, although I have no clue what it means and if all formats untill DSD 512 for the ifi will be supported.

Quote: Apple MAC OSX and Linux support USB audio class 2 natively, hence no driver is needed.

For the McIntosh I think I am out of luck. Linux will probably not be on their radar and even the current Windows driver has some issues that they are not addressing.

I am interested in the Nucleus, but currently all is well running roon on my i7 laptop and I am a bit hesitant to spend around 2K on the Nucleus just to find that ROCK is too advanced or not fitting for my set up.

4

Does that McIntosh work on Mac?

5

Cannot confirm myself, no Mac here, but found this in the manual. Probably the answer is yes.

Note: If an Apple Macintosh computer is used with the MA7900, no additional driver is required.

6

My guess is that your stuff will all just work with NUC + ROCK then.

7

So Mac and Linux are easier in regard to USB. Only Windows really requires a seperate driver? Interesting.

Thank you for the replies.

8

only windows does not have that usb audio 2.0 driver by default… they are adding it soon