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Headless Mac as a music server/streamer - hints and tips
#11
Hello flohmann, and it's good to hear that this thread might be useful to someone else.

I need to add some notes when I've finished setting up my Mac Mini (still work in progress, though there is a bit of "thinking aloud"/planning starting at post 39 in my system thread).  In the meantime you're welcome to PM me if you want to exchange some ideas.  The good news is that so far the set-up seems to be more straightforward to get working than I'd expected.

I'm also thinking about using room correction on the Mac Mini, and Dirac is on my short list there too.
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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#12
Since my Mac Mini is now pretty much configured and working well, perhaps I should put in a few notes about things I learned on the way.

In no particular order, as they say:

Apple's screen sharing works really well.  It needs to be configured individually for each user account that you want to connect to/as (not just once and for all for the whole machine).  One thing that surprised me is that you can see the machine boot via screen sharing, and even do minor OS updates without having to use a proper screen or keyboard, which is very handy.

I set up a standard, non-admin account to run music services.  The machine is configured to automatically log into that account after power-up; the music services -- Roon in my case -- are then started automatically as user-specified log-in items.  All very straightforward.

AIR is configured to start when the machine boots, and to stream automatically to my D440 Pro "when it appears on the network".  There were a couple of hiccups when I first set that up: firstly, it's important to quit and re-start AIR after changing that option (to make it "stick"), and secondly what it really means is that AIR connects when the amp has its Ethernet (or wi-fi) input selected (i.e. not when it powers up, as I'd expected).  That aside, this seems to work well.

As I mentioned in my system thread, the Mac has a local copy of my music library which is stored on an Apple Time Capsule (NAS).  It does a one-way sync from the Time Capsule to its internal SSD early in the morning, using Destek's Folder Sync.  Roon sees only the local copy of the music library, so plays from the SSD with no network traffic.

For back-up I'm using a combination of Time Machine, Haystack Software's Arq and (fairly infrequent) manual disk clones to a bootable USB drive using Shirt Pocket's Super Duper!  To avoid the potential for Time Capsule back-ups to get in the way of playing music, I've used Time Machine Editor to schedule them to happen daily, early in the morning.  Arq is also scheduled to do daily back-ups to Amazon S3/Glacier around the same time.

One thing that I haven't got working as planned: I'd wanted the Mini to put itself to sleep when it was idle.  That worked OK for everything except Roon.  Unfortunately Roon doesn't send any wake-on-LAN packets when the remote talks to the core, so if the Mini is asleep Roon remote can't connect to the core without some other means of waking up the Mini.  There's a thread about this on the Roon forum, but it looks as though it's not high-enough priority for Roon to sort out in the short term.  For the time being, I've just configured the Mini not to go to sleep when idle.  It runs very cool anyway so I'm not too upset.

That's about it for now; I'll add more notes as and when they occur to me.  Hope this has been helpful.
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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#13
I let my Mac Mini sleep. I wake it by clicking the IR remote, the Apple Remote app, the Devialet App, or activating screen sharing (depending what I'm doing). As long as I have the Mac Mini set to WoL (Wake on LAN) those methods all work well. On the other end I find the Off Remote app by Hobbyist Software useful if I want to shut off the Mac instead of having it sleep. This iOS app works with a helper Mac app to let me shut down the Mac Mini with a click on my iOS devices.

I configured my Devialet to default to the AIR (WiFI) input so that when the Mac wakes it finds Devialet AIR all set to go.
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#14
How do you wake up your Mac using the Devialet app? Thanks for suggesting the Off Remote app. Both could be handy.
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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#15
I had similar challenge on both my Mac Mini and/or Windows 10 NUC.

For the latter I use either the Wake on Lan application, or just log in remotely to turn back on.

For Mac Mini it has been a while but I believe either logging in via Screen Sharing or sending WOL packet will awake the Mini.

This is the version for Mac computer.

This is for iPad/iPhone.
Roon ROCK on Intel NUC6i5SYH/Ethernet | VPI Avenger | Devialet 440 Pro CI | Vivid Audio Giya G3 | Auralic Aires Mini | Synology 1812+ NAS
SXSW, US
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#16
Yes, screen sharing wakes it up, as does sending WoL from a suitable app.

Any of these approaches would be fine if it were just me using the system, but each separate step in the way of just pressing a button and having music makes it substantially more difficult/annoying for anyone of a less technical bent... Two steps (turn on the amp and wait for it to start up, then press play in Roon) is just about acceptable. Having to use something apparently unrelated to music in between would be a step too far, I'm afraid.
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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#17
Mac Mini + Ubuntu Linux + Mopidy. Thats what I use...
2 Phantom Gold's + Dialog. Sony Bravia TV + Mopidy server (Mac Mini playing from a network connected 4bay QNAP NAS) + Minix Neo U1 + Lindy A/D convertor connected through a Lindy 4x1 Optical switch.
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#18
(13-Feb-2017, 23:56)thumb5 Wrote: Yes, screen sharing wakes it up, as does sending WoL from a suitable app.

Any of these approaches would be fine if it were just me using the system, but each separate step in the way of just pressing a button and having music makes it substantially more difficult/annoying for anyone of a less technical bent...  Two steps (turn on the amp and wait for it to start up, then press play in Roon) is just about acceptable.  Having to use something apparently unrelated to music in between would be a step too far, I'm afraid.

Actually very, very good points. Actually that is something I have been striving for over the past year, simplifying the system such that it is usable by other members of the householder, from turn on, to shutdown, and everything in between.
Roon ROCK on Intel NUC6i5SYH/Ethernet | VPI Avenger | Devialet 440 Pro CI | Vivid Audio Giya G3 | Auralic Aires Mini | Synology 1812+ NAS
SXSW, US
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#19
I have three clicks, but only because I turn off the Devialet. Without that it would be two:
1) Wake Devialet from standby (using the RF remote or Devialet app)
2) Press play on my Mac Mini remote to start playing where I left off
For me turning on the Devialet wakes the Mac Mini from sleep because USB gets activated (the Mac sees a new USB input activity handshake) since I set the default Devialet input to USB.
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#20
Ah, the USB waking up your Mac was what I'd missed. That sounds like a good solution, thanks for explaining.
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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