ROCK RoonOS v1 to v2 on i5 NUC

[Wade_Oram]

@simon_pepper

My understanding of this is that the 2.1 version was created purely for the later NUCs that no longer offered the legacy boot in the firmware, so Roon created a UEFI boot version & named this “RoonOS 2.x”

Not quite true. Builds of RoonOS 1.0 (including 259) support UEFI boot as well as legacy BIOS boot.

Support for UEFI boot was added in Roon OS 1.0 (build 254) in Nov 2022. See:

RoonOS (Nucleus / ROCK) build 254 production is live!

Hi Everyone, It’s been a while since we’ve issued an update for RoonOS and we have a major change along with some minor fixes which do need to be released. The largest change in this build is support for booting via UEFI which is especially important as Intel phases out NUCs with legacy boot options. Taking this release as an update will not change your device to UEFI boot or require any other intervention. This change will only apply to new installations. There is no practical (or audible) r…

Support for legacy BIOS boot was dropped in RoonOS 1.0 (build 261) in Jul 2024. See:

RoonOS (Nucleus / ROCK) build 261 production is live!

Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce an update to Roon OS, specifically for ROCK and Nucleus TITAN users. This release fixes HDMI port functionality and support for Thunderbolt over USB-C on newer hardware (NUC12+ and Nucleus Titan). For more details, click here to read our blog! ** NOTE: This update is only applicable to ROCK devices created using RoonOS 1.0 Build 254 or later (released after 11/09/2022). ROCK installations prior to this date will not receive this update. However, ther…

Thus ROCK installs on modern NUCs done between November 2022 and July 2024 would originally have had one of the Roon OS 1.0 builds installed but may or may not have been upgraded to Roon OS 2.1 depending upon whether they were installed using legacy BIOS boot or UEFI boot. Those ROCK systems using BIOS boot, will only update Roon OS to build 259.

@simon_pepper

This version also has the Tailscale option.

The ‘core’ Roon functionality offered is identical,

Correct on both points.

@simon_pepper

and if Roon and ARC are all working fine, there is no real advantage or reason to re-flash a NUC built with a legacy boot process.

Essentially correct - but some people may consider the use of Tailscale to be more secure than using port forwarding and may thus wish to migrate to UEFI boot if their hardware supports it.