I have installed Roon on a linux server, with my music files on a usb external drive (format etx4) connected directly to the server and with the OS (and Roon database) on a spinning HDD. The browsing experience is not as fast as before (Mac Pro 2013) but it works and usually plays my music (mostly flacs) without problems on my two bluesounds (one wired, one wifi).
Sometimes, Roon just doesn’t want to play the music. I can browse the database but when I press play, nothing happens, even with the internet radios.
The only solution I have found is to restart the server and the bluesounds, which is quite annoying.
Hi @Edwin_V ---- Thank you for the report and sharing your feedback with us!
Moving froward, to help aide in our evaluation of this behavior you’re experiencing, may I very kindly ask you to please provide the following information:
An expanded description of your current setup, using this link as a guide. Having some additional information on the device currently hosting Roon would be very appreciated!
What device(s) are you using to control Roon and when you make this observation do you ever lose contact with the core machine from the remote?
When Roon won’t play music, besides “nothing happening”, are you met with any error messages in the application?
My setup is the following: Roon on Ubuntu Server 16.04 on a Asus VivoPC (Intel® Celeron® 2957U @ 1.40GHz with 4Gig RAM) with a 500Gb HDD (OS, Roon database, Owncloud, Samba, Plex,…). Music is on an external 3Tb drive (USB 3.0), connected to the server. 30.000 tracks.
I control Roon with a Retina MBP, Mac Pro and Iphone 6s. I do not really lose contact, as I can still browse into Roon. It is just that, when I press PLAY, music does not start, I don’t hear anything, nor does I see the time start moving on the screen. It happens with all the devices…
Hi @Edwin_V ----- Thank you for the follow up and providing me with the requested feedback, both are very appreciated!
Moving forward, I’m going to enable some additional diagnostics on your account while we look into this. Can you please reproduce the issue you’re describing a few more times, and take note of the time when the problem occurs.
The problems occurred this morning once again, rebooted everything and it worked. Then it happens a second time after about 1 hour, just rebooted the plex bluesound speaker and it worked again. I am suspecting the DHCP server and some confusion with IP address changes.
Tonight, the problem occurred once more. When I realized the play button didn’t play the music, I went to the bluesound app to try to play from there some music and it worked. So the problem might not be related to the network, maybe.
I then restart the roonserver service in terminal, instead of rebooting the machine. And, after restarting the node and plex, it started to play music again…
A few days ago, I have unplugged the bluesound plex (WiFi) and have used only the bluesound node2 (rj45) as a roon zone! I haven’t had the problem since then!
I will connect the plex with a cable and see if the issue is WiFi related!!!
Hi @Edwin_V ----- Apologies for the slow response here, I have been out of the office for a few days. I saw your follow ups and wanted to touch base with you. Thank you for your patience.
How did the testing going with a hardwired connections?
Since I have wired my plex, the problem has disappeared. I still wanted to understand the reasons of this issue, as I don’t have music in the kitchen now. But I don’t really know where to look (DHCP, wifi,…)! I am not that technical…
Hi @Edwin_V ---- Thanks for touching base with me, I greatly appreciate the update.
I want to see if we can try and identify what variable(s) could be having influence on this behavior you’re experiencing. This does feel network related to me and in order to give you proper feedback may I very kindly ask you to please describe your network configuration/topology as well as providing insight into any networking hardware you are currently implementing.
I want to have a clear understanding of how your audio zones are communicating with Roon and your network. The more detail you can provide, the better.
I have a Mac Pro 2013 (High Sierra) that used to host the Roon server. Then I have different roon clients, iphones and Macbooks. I have a bluesound plex (wifi) and bluesound node 2 (wired) as roon endpoints.
What I did lately is migrating the roon server to a Ubuntu server (hosted on a not very powerful Asus VivoPC: Intel® Celeron® 2957U @ 1.40GHz, with 4gig RAM), wired as well. Although now, browsing through Roon is much slower than with the Mac Pro, the music is played non-stop.
It is only when I put the plex in wifi that I experience, sometimes a freeze in the music playing, not browsing. The music doesn’t stop abruptly. It is when I want to change the music, when I press the play button, that nothing happens.
It is also worth mentioning that I have installed a DHCP server on the Ubuntu. So, the IPs are distributed through the linux server and not through the router as before.
Does this make sence?
In the future, I want to grow my roon endpoints in rooms that do not have wired connexion. I will probably end up buying a i5 nuc for the roon server as well. But I don’t want to invest if I cannot solve this problem before…
Hi @Edwin_V ----- Thank you for the follow up! The insight is very appreciated!
Moving forward, this behavior you are experiencing with the mentioned endpoint feels as if it could be related to one or more of the following:
Performance of the core
Network configuration
Wifi quality
We have many users who are implementing various Bluesound endpoints in their setups, both utilizing Wifi and ethernet based connections, without issue. So the goal moving forward should be to use the process of elimination to try and isolate where the issue is occurring.
The first thing I would like to point out right away is the device currently hosting RoonServer (i.e “Asus VivoPC: Intel® Celeron® 2957U @ 1.40GHz, with 4gig RAM”). The Celeron processor is way under our recommend spec and I wouldn’t be surprised if you are feeling the affects of some performance issues because of such.
Secondly, I would recommend get everything (router, BS endpoints, and core machine, etc) configured in a small hardwired setup just to test how things hold up/perform. Next, I would get the endpoints back on WiFi, confirm the same, and start to expand back out. This will give us a better sense of where the issue could be stemming from.
Thanks for your answer. I started this Linux server with this machine as a trial and plan to move to a NUC i5 in the future. As I removed the plex (wifi) from the network, Roon was behaving correctly in the first place. But I am moving more and more files to my owncloud server (same machine as Roon) and the performance of the core is degrading and now my problem with playing music is happening again.
This seems that it is indeed just a problem of processing power…
