ROCK can't find network address after fresh install

[Dr.Sterni (VS)]

Roon Server Machine

ROCK 1.0 (build 258) production
Intel NUC NUC8i7BEH2 (Intel i7, 16GB RAM, 1 TB SSD M2) - yes, it IS supported like mentioned in the list.

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Simple Ethernet-connection (via Cable), no VPN or something

Connected Audio Devices

None yet, as the ROCK does not want to work.

Number of Tracks in Library

Less than 1000 Tracks

Description of Issue

Hello everyone,

I am having an issue with my Intel NUC right after the fresh installation of the ROCK. I am really sorry, but this reminds me of a topic we had here already under the following link:

ROCK Searching for network address

Hello Roon, I’m having trouble getting ROCK up and running. I have an intel NUC. I updated BIOS to 0081.bio I have a 1 TB samsung SSD. The Rock install went great however when I rebooted my NUC I get a searching for network address… message. I have confirmed that I have a good ethernet network cable and it is plugged into a good port on my router. When I go into my router I’m not seeing the NUC. My router is set up to be a DHCP server. When ROCK boots up I noticed the serial field is blank?? …

Unfortunately I am having the same issue: The ROCK is searching for a network address for hours and hours, stating: “If this persists, please check your network connection.”.

So I did of course. The cables (more than one to try out if this was the problem) are good. The switch I am using for my home-stuff is good and gives perfect signals on all of it’s ports. The DHCP-server is up an running. The BIOS settings of my Intel NUC are exactly the ones I have taken out of the installation manual here on this site. And YES, the “LAN”-feature in the BIOS “Devices”-Page is switched to “on”, network boot is of and all that…

I am really lost here. Before you ask: Yes, I did try to install a different OS on that machine in order to find out if the ethernet-port is broken or the chip-set. In my case I used Windows 11. And that worked perfectly.

Any help is welcome! Thank you very much in advance!

Greetings, Volker.

[Menzies]

Hello @Dr.Sterni

I’m just a fellow Roon user.

Welcome to the Roon Community.

Have you by chance tried connecting your NUC to a monitor/TV via hdmi.

If you have, you’ll see white text, top left of the screen. A photo of this might assist in the cause and a way forward with a solution.

If you get nothing or another set of text it’s possible Roon Rock isn’t booting.

Post back your findings and we, the community and support can assist further.

@support might be able to see from their end if your NUC has ever been able to connect to their servers.

[Dr.Sterni (VS)]

Thank you for your fast reply!

Sorry I forgot to post the photo I already made. Stupid me

Well, yes, the Roon Rock is already running, but it simply won’t connect. Here is the corresponding picture:

[Menzies]

Anything to help a fellow Roon user out.

Try the following. Will need a keyboard connected to the NUC.

It says for a Nucleus, but works for ROCK.

Don’t put a full stop “.” At the end of the reset command

After this, reboot the NUC.

Then in a web browser type ROCK.LOCAL
You can also obtain the exact IP from the screen with the white text if this works.

I’d be surprised if this doesn’t resolve the issue.

You are aiming to get to this screen

And/or the Roon Remote app on your chosen device should detect it and the login process begins.

[Menzies]

If this doesn’t work, could you explain in more detail your network

[Geoff_Coupe]

This may have nothing to do with your issue, but I notice that the ROCK installer has installed build 258 of RoonOS (which was released in May 2023), rather than build 259, which was released in August 2023.

Did you download the latest version of ROCK from here:

ROCK Install Guide

[Dr.Sterni (VS)]

Hi @Menzies,

Unfortunately I tried this already and it does not help.
Please see message below.

[Dr.Sterni (VS)]

You’re right, maybe some more details:

The Intel NUC is connected over a switch (TPLink, nothing special) to my router which is a standard Telekom Speedport 4. From there it should have an internet-connection and a connection to the other devices in my network.

The problem seems to be that the drivers of the RoonRock-Image don’t power up the ethernet-port. There is in fact no connection to anywhere else. I tried to look for the Intel NUC on my network. On my Speedport you can see all active and inactive but knows connections. The Intel NUC device is just not there.

So the NUC does not even TRY to build up a connection. It’s waiting for nothing (like in the image above).

In my opinion this is caused by an ethernet-port not properly powered up or something. This ethernet-port (and all of the rest of my setup) runs fine with the same Intel NUC on Windows 11. But who wants a RoonServer on a Windows 11 machine?

[Dr.Sterni (VS)]

This is the next thing I will try again. Hopefully the problem has indeed something to do with an older version of the Roon Rock.

I will let you know!

[Geoff_Coupe]

OK, thanks. It is odd, though, an 8th generation NUC should have no problem, even with the older build of RoonOS.

There were problems with newer generations of NUCs because Intel changed the network chips, but I believe these have now been resolved.

[Dr.Sterni (VS)]

Hey Geoff,

due to your hint I did everything from scratch with the installation of my Roon-Setup. And of course from the link you stated. I was pretty sure I had the image from there, but you never know.

Here comes the funny part: It is REALLY the 258-Build that’s installed. If that’s not the latest version the @support should probably insert the correct link to the newer image.

But still: The same problem like before.

Do you guys think that setting up a smaller linux (like AudioLinux) or so and then adding the Roon-Packeges would do the job?

Thanks for all of your help!

[Geoff_Coupe]

As I said originally, I don’t think the older build is the cause of the issue. It may well be that Roon Labs still have that build used in the link because of the fact that it is irrelevant. During normal installation, if updates are required, the Roon Server and Roon OS will pull them in. It’s because there is an issue with your network connection that this hasn’t happened.

Setting up a Linux distribution on the NUC and then downloading and installing the Linux X64 version of Roon from the Download page may bypass the issue and get you up and running, but won’t reveal the cause. It’s an odd one - not seen this before.

Roon - Downloads

[mikeb]

Layer 1: check the network cable, check the link lights. Does a pc/Laptop pull an ip address in the same port?

I don’t think the version number is too significant, if your NUC ever sees the internet, it will automatically update.

[Dr.Sterni (VS)]

Hi Mike!

Thanks for taking part in this adventure :-). As Geoff already mentioned: This problem seems really odd.

I checked the cables, and the lights. No problem under Windows 11 there. I am typing this stuff here right now on this machine.

Just under RoonRock the network connection seems to be gone as far as hardware is concerned.

[mikeb]

Are you using MAC address filtering on your router? Perhaps check the router security settings, that its allowing new clients?

[xxx (Banned - toxicity)]

You probably tried this, but if not then reboot the router.

[Dr.Sterni (VS)]

@mikeb: Thanks, I checked this yesterday. All clients are allowed in my setup, even the new ones. There’s no MAC adress filtering active.

@xxx: Thanks for helping! I did that also yesterday after I was completely lost for the first time and really had no other idea. Plus: I rebootet the switch. Both actions had no positive effect unfortunately.

[Dr.Sterni (VS)]

Hey all,

thank you ever so much for helping me with this topic.

I finally found the solution. And yes, it’s a pretty strange one. In fact also the Windows 11-system started to run very unstable and began to lose it’s network connection every now and then.

While I was thinking about it while cleaning the living-room just in order to free my mind again a little bit, I thought, that this might be the problem: DUST! And that’s what finally worked out. As you might imaging I bought a used NUC and guess what: The ethernet-port was just dirty.

So I cleaned it up properly with some alcohol and q-tips and that made the deal. It’s up and running now for quite some time (crossing my fingers that this lasts for a while) and it’s now installed via the roon-image.

So, thanks again and sooooorrryyyy for bothering you all.

All the best from Germany. - Sterni