Roon 1.7 (Build 667) on Linux crashes regularly

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)
(Feature Request - Why can’t I copy/paste this info from the client!?! It’s not selectable from the “About” section in settings, or the “View Info” link.)

Roon 1.7 (Build 667)
Linux 5.4.0-52-generic (Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS)
Running on VMWare ESXI 6.7, 8CPU x 64GB ram

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)

10G / 1G network through Mikrotik CRS125/309/326.
Wifi through Unifi UAP-AC-Pro/UAP-HD-Pro.
All Roon devices & server on same subnet / VLAN.

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)
Wired Ethernet - iMac Pro to PS Audio Sprout (v1)
Wifi - iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
Wired Ethernet - HiFiBerry Digi+ via Digital Coax
Wifi - iOS Roon client

Description Of Issue

The RoonServer process appears to crash regularly (every few hours of playtime), causing the clients to disconnect. Doesn’t matter which client I use.

I’ve uninstalled / reinstalled the RoonServer using the easy installer described at: https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/linux-install

I have verified ffmpeg is the latest available version (7:4.2.4-1ubuntu0.1)

The evidence of the crash is in /var/log/syslog, after the crash.

There don’t appear (to me) to be any telltale messages in RoonServer_log.01.txt preceding the crash. RoonServer_log.txt appears to show a regular startup on the process.

Will send private link to zipped logs upon request.

Seems similar to this deleted post, which is cached in Google. https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-stops-playing-same-hardware-that-used-to-work-flawlessly/127007/26

FWIW, I am running Roon Server on Ubuntu 20.04.1 without any problem. Difference is that you are apparently running it in a virtual machine on VMWare which your thread title doesn’t reflect.

BTW, the current kernel version on 20.04.1 is 5.4.0-54-generic.

Upgraded to Ubuntu 20.04.1 / 5.4.0-54-generic

Still crashes with same symptoms.

Don’t have experience with running Roon on virtualized Ubuntu. Let’s hope someone else can point you in the right direction. I can only report that Roon on a standard Ubuntu 20.04 installation and a dedicated machine is running rock solid at my place.

Virtualized shouldn’t make any difference.

Roon 1.7 (Build 667) is crashing sometimes when it see some error in your network folders.
If you have any, try to turn off one after another in order to find the probem one.
In my case one of my network folder two days ago tended Roon Server to stop after 10-30 seconds after start, I think the problem is an old HDD in my network storage

It seems to crash just as much when I’m streaming TIDAL as it does when I’m playing from local files (NFS mounted from server).

Separately, I frequently get errors of “can’t login to TIDAL” if it happens to be a related problem.

Hi @Chris_Lewicki,

Can you upload logs here and we’ll take a look? Thanks!

Thanks - uploaded the zip file.

Hi @Chris_Lewicki,

Do you also have Plex running on this machine? If so, does this occur if Plex is not running?

Yes, it also runs Plex. Have never tried it without.

What’s the theory on the interference?

I am running Roon server on Ubuntu 20.04.1 on a mac mini i7 from 2012 and it is stable without any issues.
Installed it and forgot about it.
Could it be hardware issues you are facing?

Hi @Chris_Lewicki,

We are seeing a crash occurring that seems to be similar to one we’ve seen in the past that occurred due to an incompatibility when Plex was running at the same time. I’m going to have our senior technical team look into this, but it would be good to know if it is stemming from Plex also running or if this is unrelated.

Thanks!

I disabled the plex service, but I’m still getting crashes. They appear to have the same signature in syslog.

Thank you for giving that a try, @Chris_Lewicki, and apologies for the delay due to the holiday. I’ll be checking with the team and get back to you ASAP.

In the meantime, I’m hoping you can confirm the following:

  • If you leave RoonServer running idle does it still crash, or is it only triggered by playback?
  • Can you try upgrading your kernel version? We’ve recently seen some issues with RoonServer on kernel 5.4.x and while that typically doesn’t lead to crashing like you’re seeing, it might be related.

Actually, in reviewing the syslog, it appears to crash approximately every 1 hour and 39 minutes (plus or minus ~30s).

I don’t believe I have any automated processes that run at that frequency, and nothing in the logs regularly precedes the crashes.

As noted in the thread above, I’ve updated to 5.4.0-54-generic and am still seeing the crashes.

Hi @Chris_Lewicki,

We are investigating an issue that appears to be very similar to what you’re seeing here. The issue appears to change from networking conditions resulting in Roon performing activity more often than typical and ultimately crashing.

We are investigating this on our side for a solution and I want to confirm that it is the same behavior you’re seeing.

In the other case, DHCP lease renewal for the Core machine was happening every ~30s, and that’s what triggered this behavior. Setting this time to be longer in the router’s settings resolved the problem while we continue to investigate this on our end.

Do you have something similar happening? Are there frequent network changes of any sort that are happening at regular intervals?

My DHCP lease period is currently 300 seconds. I will try extending it to 3600 seconds and see if the behavior changes.

1 Like

Hi @Chris_Lewicki — Have you noticed any improvement since making this change?