This guide is for a basic installation of Shairport Sync in a recent (2018 onwards) Linux or FreeBSD.
Shairport Sync can be built as an AirPlay 2 player (with some limitations) or as "classic" Shairport Sync – a player for the older, but still supported, AirPlay (aka "AirPlay 1") protocol. Check "What You Need" for some basic system requirements.
Overall, you'll be building and installing two programs – Shairport Sync itself and NQPTP, a companion app that Shairport Sync uses for AirPlay 2 timing. If you are building classic Shairport Sync, NQPTP is unnecessary and can be omitted.
In the commands below, note the convention that a # prompt means you are in superuser mode and a $ prompt means you are in a regular unprivileged user mode. You can use sudo ("SUperuser DO") to temporarily promote yourself from user to superuser, if permitted. For example, if you want to execute apt-get update in superuser mode and you are in user mode, enter sudo apt-get update.
Before you begin building Shairport Sync, it's best to remove any existing copies of the application, called shairport-sync. Use the command $ which shairport-sync to find them. For example, if shairport-sync has been installed previously, this might happen:
$ which shairport-sync
/usr/local/bin/shairport-sync
Remove it as follows:
# rm /usr/local/bin/shairport-sync
Do this until no more copies of shairport-sync are found.
You should also remove any of the following service files that may be present:
/etc/systemd/system/shairport-sync.service/etc/systemd/user/shairport-sync.service/lib/systemd/system/shairport-sync.service/lib/systemd/user/shairport-sync.service/etc/init.d/shairport-sync
New service files will be installed if necessary at the # make install stage.
If you removed any installations of Shairport Sync or any of its service files in the last two steps, you should reboot.
Okay, now let's get the tools and libraries for building and installing Shairport Sync (and NQPTP).
# apt update
# apt upgrade # this is optional but recommended
# apt install --no-install-recommends build-essential git autoconf automake libtool \
libpopt-dev libconfig-dev libasound2-dev avahi-daemon libavahi-client-dev libssl-dev libsoxr-dev \
libplist-dev libsodium-dev libavutil-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev uuid-dev libgcrypt-dev xxd
If you are building classic Shairport Sync, the list of packages is shorter:
# apt update
# apt upgrade # this is optional but recommended
# apt-get install --no-install-recommends build-essential git autoconf automake libtool \
libpopt-dev libconfig-dev libasound2-dev avahi-daemon libavahi-client-dev libssl-dev libsoxr-dev
For AirPlay 2 operation, before you install the libraries, please ensure the you have enabled RPM Fusion software repositories to the "Nonfree" level. If this is not done, the FFmpeg libraries will lack a suitable AAC decoder, preventing Shairport Sync from working in AirPlay 2 mode.
# yum update
# yum install --allowerasing make automake gcc gcc-c++ \
git autoconf automake avahi-devel libconfig-devel openssl-devel popt-devel soxr-devel \
ffmpeg ffmpeg-devel libplist-devel libsodium-devel libgcrypt-devel libuuid-devel vim-common \
alsa-lib-devel
If you are building classic Shairport Sync, the list of packages is shorter:
# yum update
# yum install make automake gcc gcc-c++ \
git autoconf automake avahi-devel libconfig-devel openssl-devel popt-devel soxr-devel \
alsa-lib-devel
After you have installed the libraries, note that you should enable and start the avahi-daemon service.
# pacman -Syu
# pacman -Sy git base-devel alsa-lib popt libsoxr avahi libconfig \
libsndfile libsodium ffmpeg vim libplist
If you are building classic Shairport Sync, the list of packages is shorter:
# pacman -Syu
# pacman -Sy git base-devel alsa-lib popt libsoxr avahi libconfig
Enable and start the avahi-daemon service.
# systemctl enable avahi-daemon
# systemctl start avahi-daemon
First, update everything:
# freebsd-update fetch
# freebsd-update install
# pkg
# pkg update
Next, install the Avahi subsystem. FYI, avahi-app is chosen because it doesn’t require X11. nss_mdns is included to allow FreeBSD to resolve mDNS-originated addresses – it's not actually needed by Shairport Sync. Thanks to reidransom for this.
# pkg install avahi-app nss_mdns
Add these lines to /etc/rc.conf:
dbus_enable="YES"
avahi_daemon_enable="YES"
Next, change the hosts: line in /etc/nsswitch.conf to
hosts: files dns mdns
Reboot for these changes to take effect.
Next, install the packages that are needed for Shairport Sync and NQPTP:
# pkg install git autotools pkgconf popt libconfig openssl alsa-utils libsoxr \
libplist libsodium ffmpeg e2fsprogs-libuuid vim
If you are building classic Shairport Sync, the list of packages is shorter:
# pkg install git autotools pkgconf popt libconfig openssl alsa-utils libsoxr
Skip this section if you are building classic Shairport Sync – NQPTP is not needed for classic Shairport Sync.
Download, install, enable and start NQPTP from here.
Download Shairport Sync, branch and configure, compile and install it. Before executing the commands, please note the following:
- If building for FreeBSD, replace
--with-systemdwith--with-os=freebsd --with-freebsd-service. - Omit the
--with-airplay-2from the./configureoptions if you are building classic Shairport Sync. - If you wish to add extra features, for example an extra audio backend, take a look at the configuration flags. For this walkthrough, though, please do not remove the
--with-alsaflag.
$ git clone https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync.git
$ cd shairport-sync
$ autoreconf -fi
$ ./configure --sysconfdir=/etc --with-alsa \
--with-soxr --with-avahi --with-ssl=openssl --with-systemd --with-airplay-2
$ make
# make install
By the way, the autoreconf step may take quite a while – please be patient!
At this point, Shairport Sync should be built and installed but not running. If the user you are logged in as is a member of the unix audio group, Shairport Sync should run from the command line:
$ shairport-sync
- Add the
-vcommand line option to get some diagnostics. - Add the
--statisticsoption to get some infomation about the audio received.
The AirPlay service should appear on the network and the audio you play should come through to the default ALSA device. (Use alsamixer or similar to adjust levels.)
If you have problems, please check the items in Final Notes below, or in the TROUBLESHOOTING.md guide.
Note: Shairport Sync will run indefinitely -- use Control-C it to stop it.
If your system has a Graphical User Interface (GUI) it probably uses PulseAudio or PipeWire for audio services. If that is the case, please review Working with PulseAudio or PipeWire.
Otherwise, once you are happy that Shairport Sync runs from the command line, you should enable and start the shairport-sync service. This will launch Shairport Sync automatically as a background "daemon" service when the system powers up:
# systemctl enable shairport-sync
To make the shairport-sync daemon load at startup, add the following line to /etc/rc.conf:
shairport_sync_enable="YES"
Reboot the machine. The AirPlay service should once again be visible on the network and audio will be sent to the default ALSA device.
A number of system settings can affect Shairport Sync. Please review them as follows:
If your computer has an Automatic Suspend Power Saving Option, you should experiment with disabling it, because your computer has to be available for AirPlay service at all times.
If you are using WiFi, you should turn off WiFi Power Management:
# iwconfig wlan0 power off
or
# iw dev wlan0 set power_save off
The motivation for this is that WiFi Power Management will put the WiFi system in low-power mode when the WiFi system is considered inactive. In this mode, the system may not respond to events initiated from the network, such as AirPlay requests. Hence, WiFi Power Management should be turned off. See TROUBLESHOOTING.md for more details.
(You can find WiFi device names (e.g. wlan0) with $ ifconfig.)
If a firewall is running (some systems, e.g. Fedora, run a firewall by default), ensure it is not blocking ports needed by Shairport Sync and NQPTP.
With AirPlay 2, you can follow the steps in ADDINGTOHOME.md to add your device to the Apple Home system.
Instead of using default values for everything, you can use the configuration file to get finer control over the setup, particularly the output device and mixer control -- see Finish Setting Up.
Please take a look at Advanced Topics for some ideas about what else you can do to enhance the operation of Shairport Sync. For example, you can adjust synchronisation to compensate for delays in your system.