need upgrade ideas for dedicated roon server

rogerfederer said:
Here is a look inside the inspiron
Not sure which is the HD…
Can anyone tell?
Click to expand...
The video that @airdronian posted does show how to access that part of the machine at the 9:15 mark, though most of that video is about replacing the power supply, but he does show how to take off the front plastic panel, and then swing the entire silver half-cover upward to reveal the hard drive bay.

So the front black plastic has three tabs, lift them and remove the front cover, then you can swing the entire metal half cover upwards.
 
rogerfederer said:
how small a SDD can i get away with to run some version of linux plus roon?
Click to expand...
Very small, however they don't even make the smallest capacities anymore, and the old stock of those is typically at higher prices than newer production in a larger capacity is.

So even though an older 64GB drive is still plenty large enough to run Roon, you'll likely have trouble finding that for anything less than the $45 or so it will take to get a 250GB SSD these days, say SanDisk Ultra, or Western Digital Blue... which are actually the same thing if I'm not mistaken, WD bought SanDisk a few years ago and I think thats the same exact drive with a different wrapper on it.
 
using this link:
www.crucial.com

Gateway SX2865-UR11P | Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | Crucial.com

Crucial Memory and SSD upgrades - 100% Compatibility Guaranteed for Gateway SX2865-UR11P - FREE US Delivery.
www.crucial.com www.crucial.com
looks like the smallest i can buy is 240gb for $39 so might as well order that
make sense?
then can install and hopefully y'all will coach me a bit re installing the appropriate version of linux :)
from there roon has how-to stuff re adding roon to a linux machine
 
rogerfederer said:
hey, thanks!
so i could go ahead with that machine or the gateway. i like the idea of using the gateway and seeing if it meets the need. how small a SDD can i get away with to run some version of linux plus roon? (fwiw, would likely have 16gb ram.)
Click to expand...
I do not know what roon needs. I am typing this message using one of my thin client computers (2.4 Ghz quad core with 8 G of ram). It is a bare bones Linux Mint MATE installation with a few add ons and it runs fine with a 16GB hard drive. I do have to periodically delete past versions of the Linux kernal to maintain some space in the hard drive. When I use this machine for music server purposes I just download a number of albums onto a thumb drive and play the music using either Audacious or Dead Beef software.
 
electrovice said:
I do not know what roon needs. I am typing this message using one of my thin client computers (2.4 Ghz quad core with 8 G of ram). It is a bare bones Linux Mint MATE installation with a few add ons and it runs fine with a 16GB hard drive. I do have to periodically delete past versions of the Linux kernal to maintain some space in the hard drive. When I use this machine for music server purposes I just download a number of albums onto a thumb drive and play the music using either Audacious or Dead Beef software.
Click to expand...
cool, 240gb should be fine; will order it!
thanks
 
My Roon server on CentOS 7.9 and is using 11G of 32G provisioned. My music is stored elsewhere.
 
my local IT guy was here getting my new work laptop running so i asked him about loading linux. he said i should use something called rufus to load a version of linux (he likes linux mint) ontu a thumb drive. then you insert the thumb drive into the PC with the new SSD. he said i may need to hit F12 to specify which drive i want it to use. he said that then linux will run through a bunch of set up screens. how does that sound?
 
Basically yes. Rufus was what I used to transfer the downloaded ISO file to the thumb drive when I stored the ISOs on a Windows box. The specific key used to access the BIOS varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Usually the key is identified briefly when the "splash" screen appears. In BIOS you may need to change the boot sequence ie: identify the thumb drive as the first boot device. In BIOS you may need to specify "Legacy" boot rather than UEFI. In BIOS you may need to disable "Secure Boot". If your computer uses a Broadcom wireless card you may need to temporarily use a wired network connection to the internet or a wireless dongle. There is a software package that needs to be downloaded for Broadcom devices.

Have fun!
 
electrovice said:
Basically yes. Rufus was what I used to transfer the downloaded ISO file to the thumb drive when I stored the ISOs on a Windows box. The specific key used to access the BIOS varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Usually the key is identified briefly when the "splash" screen appears. In BIOS you may need to change the boot sequence ie: identify the thumb drive as the first boot device. In BIOS you may need to specify "Legacy" boot rather than UEFI. In BIOS you may need to disable "Secure Boot". If your computer uses a Broadcom wireless card you may need to temporarily use a wired network connection to the internet or a wireless dongle. There is a software package that needs to be downloaded for Broadcom devices.

Have fun!
Click to expand...
so making the changes in the bios is something i should do before i change out the old HD, correct? otherwise i don't have an OS.
 
rogerfederer said:
so making the changes in the bios is something i should do before i change out the old HD, correct? otherwise i don't have an OS.
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Since I'm not a Roon user, I will ask the question out loud to others here if the Roon Linux distro is everything including a stripped lean Linux OS or not.

In other words, does the download of Roon itself include a stripped and optimized for Roon Linux OS, or is it just an application that is meant to run on an existing Linux base?

While it seemed the earlier links posted here showed Ubuntu as the underlying OS, it was also extremely old in that it referenced Ubuntu 15.

So I'd be curious if you are supposed to first pick your own flavor of Linux (for example Mint or Ubuntu) and then install Roon as an application, or is there a ready to install Roon image that is everything including a stripped lean and mean Linux OS optimized for Roon Server duty?
 
rogerfederer said:
so making the changes in the bios is something i should do before i change out the old HD, correct? otherwise i don't have an OS.
Click to expand...
No. If you only have a blank hard drive in the computer, the computer will not boot at all. If you also have a bootable thumb drive in the USB at startup, the BIOS may automagically identify the thumb drive as your boot device. You can test drive the Linux OS without actually installing it at this point. There is an icon on the Linux screen that needs to be clicked to actually install the Mint OS onto the computer's hard drive.

If you are awaiting the delivery of the new hard drive, you could also do a dual boot and install the Linux along side the Windows OS. You could also just test drive the Linux without actually installing it by using the USB thumb drive as your temporary hard drive.
 
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rogerfederer said:
@MikeyFresh
this is the link you are referring to:
i'm assuming cuz they refer to installing roon on linux that is the scheme
Click to expand...
OK yes and that would seem to answer the question.

My only parallel here would be JRiver, which also recommended installing on Ubuntu, however I chose Mint 19.1 instead and it has been flawless.

I'd expect Roon to be similar in that regard, and I guess neither JRiver or Roon can get caught up in trying to support a million different flavors of Linux, so they tell you the "safe and tested" path Ubuntu is the way to go, but I'm sure if you poked around on their forum you'd find others that used Mint or something else instead and have no problems.
 
UPDATE:
i remembered i have an old laptop i bought to use as a roon endpoint in a room with lousy wifi reception (not an issue in my new house). a dell lattitude d820. Dell Latitude D820 Review (pics, specs)
i thought i would use that as my guinea pig and, if i got it to work, then try the same with the gateway.

long story short, i just got it working!

i used linux mint on a jump drive and figured out how to replace the windows 10 with the linux. then i loaded roon server and figured out how to add the missing dependencies (i write this stuff but barely understand it all). then i backed up roon on my existing server (windows machine) and copied the backup to a jump drive and then inserted the jump drive into the lattitude. then i used the roon copy on the prior server to configure the new linux server. i uploaded my ripped files into that new copy of roon and tried to restore using the backup on the jump drive (i tried this a few times and can't tell if it worked). then i enabled all my endpoints and started playing music!

the output sounds clear as a bell. maybe expectation bias, but maybe cutting out the windows background crap is good for the sound. i'll keep running it to make sure nothing goofy happens. i need to test out all my endpoints. right now i'm using the 3 allo digione players but need to make sure the CCA and the AppleTV also work.

thanks again for all the advice. i'll get around to gateway but maybe no rush...
 
Sorry I'm so late to this thread. Roon has handed everyone a gift...its called ROCK. Its a stripped down linux install that has only what you need to run Roon. And it's free!!!!
I have installed it twice..once on an old i3 NUC and once on an i5 NUC.
Its cheap ( I bought old NUCs off of ebay and was all in under $200) , its blazingly fast, and it works...like forever, without hiccups.
I am no software genius but with the help of an online tutorial I figured it all out with no issues.
 
rogerfederer said:
UPDATE:
i remembered i have an old laptop i bought to use as a roon endpoint in a room with lousy wifi reception (not an issue in my new house). a dell lattitude d820. Dell Latitude D820 Review (pics, specs)
i thought i would use that as my guinea pig and, if i got it to work, then try the same with the gateway.

long story short, i just got it working!

i used linux mint on a jump drive and figured out how to replace the windows 10 with the linux. then i loaded roon server and figured out how to add the missing dependencies (i write this stuff but barely understand it all). then i backed up roon on my existing server (windows machine) and copied the backup to a jump drive and then inserted the jump drive into the lattitude. then i used the roon copy on the prior server to configure the new linux server. i uploaded my ripped files into that new copy of roon and tried to restore using the backup on the jump drive (i tried this a few times and can't tell if it worked). then i enabled all my endpoints and started playing music!

the output sounds clear as a bell. maybe expectation bias, but maybe cutting out the windows background crap is good for the sound. i'll keep running it to make sure nothing goofy happens. i need to test out all my endpoints. right now i'm using the 3 allo digione players but need to make sure the CCA and the AppleTV also work.

thanks again for all the advice. i'll get around to gateway but maybe no rush...
Click to expand...

Congratulations, on your upgrade. But with Linux, you'll be missing out on the upcoming windows 11 upgrade and all that offers:-).

A quick thought on Roon - it requires few system resources as long as you are not using significant DSP processing; e.g., DSD or upscaling. If you have either and want to see the load on your server just click on the signal path and take a look at the "processing speed". If its above 1.0 you are barely ok - ideally you'll be comfortably above it. If you're not, don't despair, there are ways around it.

Below is an example of a DSD playback on my system.

1625247780866.png
 
Srx said:
Congratulations, on your upgrade. But with Linux, you'll be missing out on the upcoming windows 11 upgrade and all that offers:-).

A quick thought on Roon - it requires few system resources as long as you are not using significant DSP processing; e.g., DSD or upscaling. If you have either and want to see the load on your server just click on the signal path and take a look at the "processing speed". If its above 1.0 you are barely ok - ideally you'll be comfortably above it. If you're not, don't despair, there are ways around it.

Below is an example of a DSD playback on my system.

View attachment 37748
Click to expand...
thanks; will take a look at that
 
Also be aware they introduced some memory leaks back in November. I have to kick over the daemon once every month or so.


RzruhbTgDGueKlfj.png
 
a bit of excitement here. i have been having an internet problem (probably the router; a new one on its way). this seemed to take out my roon server, which was still on the old dell laptop. i tried to get roon server reinstalled on the laptop with no success. i reached out to the roon community support, which was very helpful.

anyways, this spurred me to dig my gateway PC out of the garage and set it up. per our previous discussions, i installed a new solid state hard drive on the gateway and updated its ram to 16gb. here are the specs on the Gateway: Pentium Dual-Core G630 2.7GHz.

i created a new boot disk using rufus for mint cinnamon 20.3 64 bit. i was able to boot it up and install mint. after a bit of back and forth, the roon community folks got my roon server up and running! now i am back in business and have a much better, faster roon server :)
 
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