In today’s “Green” world, I think it’s a good idea if the Roon Headless Server can be allowed to sleep after an inactivity period
I have my Mac ‘server’ set to sleep after a certain period of inactivity…but it does not detect that the Roon app is actually sending data to an Endpoint…the Mac goses to sleep and therefore Music stops without any warning
Can Roon change its communication to the OS, such that the OS knows that there is Activity and therefore does not allow the computer / server to sleep…at least until Roon has also been inactive for the preset Inactivity Period
Likewise, can a “Wake-on-Lan” instruction be added to Roon to allow a Roon Remote to “wake” the Server…so that music replay can start etc.
Feature request, add an optional “Wake on Lan” feature for NAS users if they are using the NAS as one or more specified network folders in Roon Core Storage. If the NAS is offline, a “wake” command would be sent to the NAS.
I am a user of a Synology NAS. My scenario is as follows:
Each day I turn on my stereo when I am ready to play music, I also turn on the computer/Aries attached to my DAC. And I send a Wake on Lan command to my NAS from a Mac, iPad or iPhone.
At the end of each day I turn off my stereo, computer/Aries and shutdown my NAS.
Optional scenario for other users. All the same except I either keep Roon Core running 24/7 and I keep my NAS running 24/7. In this case if the NAS is offline for whatever reason, send it a “wake” command.
I do realize this may be an edge case for most users, so understand if not a priority or never implemented.
I realize that depending on how implemented it could if enabled “Wake” a NAS when you didn’t want it awake.
I realize that you could implement this to only be performed when starting Roon Core, or to be performed if and when the NAS is offline.
OK guys… tell me what you want. No one on our team uses Wake-On-LAN and no one sleeps their machines. Most of our machines only reboot to take OS upgrades… laptops, servers, etc…
Help me define the product, and I’ll make it happen. Wake-on-LAN is very simple… you send a magic set of packets on the network, and if the sleeping network device sees that magic stuff while in sleep mode, it will not only wake up, but wake up the entire computer. The magic packet has a key, which is the MAC Address of the remote endpoint. I’m guessing you don’t just want a list of inputs for names and MAC Addresses with a “wake up” button next to each… so what do you want?
As for sleep, on Mac/Windows, you just want Roon to send the Core machine to sleep from the Remote? How would you like to kick off this sleep?
Hi Danny
Bear in mind that many here will be dedicating a Macmini or NUC to the job of a Roon Server at home…and then many leave home early in the am and return late in the pm to play maybe an hour or two of music after some family time…I think the above is reasonably typical behaviour for many
As such, many would set up their machines to Sleep after a period of inactivity of 30 minutes to one hour…so IMHO, there’s no need for Roon to become involved in sending the Server to sleep…as that will be set up by the user in the power settings
So coming back to a “typical” usage scenario…the user enters the listening room…picks up the Roon Tablet [or Phone]…and by opening / starting the Roon app, a WOL command gets sent to the Server to wake-up, thereby making the Roon Server app also become active…enabling the Server to ‘serve’ the Roon UI and Album browser etc. to the Remote app
The user chooses his music and the Server serves it to the endpoint
WOL is possible over Cabled Ethernet and not Wifi I believe…i.e. the Server has to be connected by cable, while the Remote can be wifi
The Roon Remote knows the IP Address of the Roon Server…and simply sends a WOL to that machine only
Does that give you enough info to go on?? If not, let me know and I will try and elaborate
Something to note is that at the moment, the Roon Server’s Host OS doesn’t “know” it’s active when playing a track to the endpoint
For example, I’ve had the Roon Server stop playing music mid-track because it has hit its Sleep time
The Sleep timer is based on 'Inactivity"…but at the moment, Roon isn’t updating the host OS that it’s still active playing music…so that would need to be added to the above
As long as the OS knows that Roon is still playing, then it will stay awake…once Roon stops playing, the Sleep Timer starts…and the Roon Server enters sleep 30-60 minutes later
roon should have option to keep computer alive on playback as if it is activity. If this isn’t possible, then have an option to auto sleep after N minutes of no playback.
roon remotes should remember mac address of any cores they have connected to in the past, and as a button on the connect to core screen, the remote should send the wake-on-lan packets.
I can’t send the packets on search, since that happens continuously in the background.
Not quite Danny…I think it’s best to rely on the host OS’s built-in functionality for Sleep times…no need for Roon to become involved in sending the host machine to sleep…the host OS sleep time settings will take care of that
Windows, OSX and Linux have Power Settings on them…enabling the machine to enter sleep after a certain user-defined period
Currently Roon Server isn’t communicating to the host OS that it’s active…and by active, I mean EITHER playing a Track to an Endpoint, OR serving the Data to the UI of a Remote app on a device
Once the music stops…AND there is no further comms between the Server and Remote, the Server stops telling the host OS that it’s active…allowing the host OS to start its sleep countdown timer…enabling the machine to enter sleep 30-60 minutes later
SUMMARY: The only change to the current design in any of the above is that Roon Server needs to tell the Host OS that it’s “still active” [based on playing music or serving data for the Remote UI]
Assuming the Remote device is normally a Tablet…and a user picks it up and opens the Roon app…then in my scenarios above, of the user returning home from a workday, the Server is still asleep
So, either the act of opening the Remote app itself sends the WOL command…or as per your reply above, the user prods a “Connect” button on the app UI…and the Remote remembers the IP / Mac address of the Server…and sends a WOL command
The user has to accept that the Server waking will take 30-40 seconds to become live again
Similar to Ronnie (I fit your usage pattern perfectly ), and whilst awaiting the iOS app eagerly, the only way I can wake my headless MacMini, which has the Roon core, is to ‘connect’ to it via Finder or some similar action.
A ‘Connect’ button to the Roon core is required on all ‘remotes’, be it a tablet (iPad) soon, or a laptop (MacBook Pro in my case) which is acting as a remote currently. Or alternatively, some other default action on the ‘remote’, without user input, e.g. the remote Roon screen becomes active? Either way, some feedback, like ‘connecting’ on the remote screen is also necessary, as Ronnie says, the core computer can take some time to come out of Sleep.
Most if what I’ll say was already said but I’ll define my ideal scenario:
Regarding Wake-on-Lan:
My MacMini is sleeping with Roon (core) loaded and running;
In my MacBook Pro (or hopefully an iOS device in the future) I open (or bring my focus back to) Roon (remote);
My MacBook Pro Roon remote tries to connect to the MacMini Roon core and doesn’t find it. Instead of simply wait for it to show up, it would automatically send a WOL to it in the hope that it will wake.;
If the MacMini does wake up then the connection should be automatically reestablished. If for some reason it doesn’t… then the same behaviour as today should happen: keep waiting for the library.
Regarding this there is something I want to share: the process described above seems trivial. But I remember having issues in the past with JRiver Media Center related to the USB connection to the DAC not waking up properly. So, for some reason, everything would seem to be running OK but I’d get no sound. But as soon as I’d use Screen Sharing to connect to the MacMini… music would start playing. I never managed to get around this. But didn’t explore much either because JRiver was not my main player.
With this approach I don’t see the need for a “connect” button anywhere. It should be automatic.
B: Regarding entering sleep mode:
I only listed to about 1h of music per day. And not every day. Since my MacMini is used exclusively as a music streamer, it seems a big waste to keep it on the whole time. So I turn it on whenever I want to listen to music and to shut it down I must connect to it through Screen Sharing and manually shut it down. Not very convenient.
Ideally, while Roon is playing it should prevent OS X from entering sleep mode. I don’t know how this is done but it shouldn’t be a big deal as it is already done by all the other player (VLC, Kodi, JRiver, etc). Once Roon stops playing… the OS X is allowed to sleep. From this moment OS X should be the one to handle entering sleep mode, based on how it is configured in the system preferences.
I would like to add my vote for this feature. I want to be able to wake up my server computer when I access Roon on a remote computer or Roon app in the future.
For my situation, I just let the OS be the vehicle to use “wake on LAN” - this feature is already part of the NIC properties. Use what is already there in your OS and/or NIC abilities.
In my setup, one Roon does not wake up the other Roon ( I believe what people are asking for), I use an APP on my iPad (WOL). In my previous configuration, I would wake up both Core and Remote from App. Works great. Maybe the ability of WOL for the iPad/Android APP.
There are examples on the 'Net which shows how you can send magic packets.
), and whilst awaiting the iOS app eagerly, the only way I can wake my headless MacMini, which has the Roon core, is to ‘connect’ to it via Finder or some similar action.