USB device connected to core doesn't appear when powered on

[Matthew_Feifarek]

Roon Core Machine

Ubuntu Server 22.04.2 LTS; Linux 5.15.0-60-generic x86_64

Core i7 CPU; 16G RAM

Roon version 2.0 build 1259 production

Networking Gear & Setup Details

This is not a networking issue; the USB device I’m having trouble with is directly connected to the core.

Connected Audio Devices

USB device is an NAD 3020D; it shows up under linux as:

new full-speed USB device number 83 using xhci_hcd
New USB device found, idVendor=17ae, idProduct=0003, bcdDevice= 1.00
New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Product: NAD USB Audio
Manufacturer: NAD Electronics

And alsa sees it as:

# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 1: Audio [NAD USB Audio], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Number of Tracks in Library

Not relevant to the issue.

Description of Issue

I have a well-working Roon setup (except this). There is one audio device directly connected to the core, and some things on the network too, but this isn’t about those. The audio device is a NAD receiver with built-in DAC, which I connect to over USB. The unit performs flawlessly with all other software I’ve used on this and previous servers.

The unit powers down when there is no audio, but when I power it back up, it doesn’t come up in Roon Zones.

Roon is aware of it; it sees it in Settings > Audio with a card that shows the unit and it says “Device not found”:

If I click on the gear icon, and choose Retry, it comes up, shows back up in zones and groups, and works flawlessly for playback.

I haven’t changed anything in “Device setup” and have even asked Roon to “Load defaults” but the problem persists.

There isn’t anything about this device in the roon logs (via journalctl -u roonserver.service).

One more curious note: when the DAC is OFF, it doesn’t show up in the Settings > Audio screen at all; it’s not “Device not found” there, it’s just not there. As soon as I turn it on, it shows up with the badge/card as shown above.

I searched the forums here, don’t see this problem (some similar ones from 2018, 2021 about usb devices not showing up without a reboot, but that seems different)

[benjamin]

Hey @Matthew_Feifarek,

You have my sincerest apologies for the delay in following up on your issue! Our team is taking a closer look into your core diagnostics to see if there are any clues into what might be going on.

In the meantime, I think refreshing your RAAT server database. Steps to follow may be found below:

You can generate a new RAATServer instance on your device by following these instructions, but please be aware that this will reset your Roon Settings → Audio Tab to factory settings and I would advise making a backup of any custom DSP settings you have:

• Create a Backup of your current Roon database
• Exit out of Roon
• Navigate to your Roon’s Database Location
• Find the folder that says “RAATServer”
• Rename the “RAATServer” folder to “RAATServer_old”
• Restart the Roon App to generate a new RAATServer folder

I’ll be on standby for your reply.

[Matthew_Feifarek]

No change in behavior after following the steps you proposed.

:-/

[benjamin]

Hey @Matthew_Feifarek,

Thanks for giving that a try. Following up on next steps, I’d be curious to see how things function on a fresh database, prior to loading a backup. Steps to follow below:

• Make a Backup of your current RoonServer Database
• Exit out of RoonServer
• Navigate to your RoonServer’s Database Location
• Find the folder that says “RoonServer”
• Rename the “RoonServer” folder to “RoonServer_old”
• Reinstall the RoonServer App from our Downloads Page to generate a new RoonServer folder
• On the Roon Remotes, press “Use another Core” and connect to the new database

Before restoring from a backup, please test out your NAD device and see if your issue persists. Thanks!