Roon installation issue on macOS Tahoe 26.2 in Parallels VM (ref#X5G8IC)

Support
1

Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· None of the above quite fits

None of the above quite fits

· None of these quite match

Tell us what's going on

· I downloaded Roon for the first time and tried to install, but nothing happens apart from the App icon jumping a few times. On first start macOS as expected asked for permission to run an App downloaded from the internet.
I already tried setting permissions, made sure the firewall is turned off, even checked that Arial is activated, but had no success so far.
My System is a parallels VM running macOS Tahoe 26.2 with 8 GB RAM on Apple M1 Ultra.

Tell us about your home network

· My Router is a Fritz!Box 7590.

2

Hello @James_Calogera

We should be direct with you: virtual machines are not a supported configuration for Roon. That applies to all of them, Parallels included, and it is not a limitation we can work around for you.

In your particular case we can also tell you what is most likely happening. Roon’s interface is rendered using OpenGL. A macOS guest inside Parallels on Apple Silicon is given paravirtualized graphics, which does not provide what Roon needs. When Roon cannot get it, it exits immediately at launch, which is exactly what you are seeing: the icon bounces a few times and then nothing happens. It also explains why changing permissions and turning off the firewall made no difference, since neither was ever involved.

The fix is to install Roon directly on macOS on the host, outside the virtual machine. You are on an M1 Ultra, which Roon runs on natively and very well. That removes the problem completely rather than working around it, and it is a configuration we do support and test.

3

Hello Vadim,

thanks for your quick answer! That would explain everything.

Why not add a short note in the installation guide? That would have spared us a lot of time. Or perhaps a message from Roon when it can’t get what it needs?

I’ll consider giving it a try on my real machine.

4

Hello @James_Calogera

Both of your points are fair, and we have passed them on. The requirement is documented, but it sits under the Windows section rather than macOS, so there was nothing for you to find on your platform. We are getting that corrected, and we have also raised the fact that Roon quit silently instead of telling you why.

Thanks for taking the time to suggest it rather than just walking away. Installed natively on your M1 Ultra it will simply work, and we hope you enjoy it.

We will close this one here. If anything comes up when you try it on the host, please open a new thread and we will pick it up.