Here are simple instructions for building and installing Shairport Sync on a Raspberry Pi B, 2B, 3B, 3B+ or 4B. It is assumed that the Pi is running Raspbian Buster Lite – a GUI isn't needed, since Shairport Sync runs as a daemon program. For a more thorough treatment, please go to the README.md page.
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.
Do the usual update and upgrade:
# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade
(Separately, if you haven't done so already, consider using the raspi-config tool to expand the file system to use the entire card.)
If you are using WiFi, you should turn off WiFi Power Management:
# iwconfig wlan0 power off
WiFi Power Management will put the WiFi system in low-power mode when the WiFi system is considered inactive, and in this mode it 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.)
Reboot the Pi.
Before you begin building Shairport Sync, it's best to search for and 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 the startup script and service definition files /etc/systemd/system/shairport-sync.service, /lib/systemd/system/shairport-sync.service, /etc/init.d/shairport-sync, /etc/dbus-1/system.d/shairport-sync-dbus.conf and /etc/dbus-1/system.d/shairport-sync-mpris.conf if they exist – new ones will be installed if necessary.
If you removed any installations of Shairport Sync or any of its startup script files in the last two steps, you should reboot.
Okay, now let's get the tools and sources for building and installing Shairport Sync.
First, install the packages needed by Shairport Sync:
# apt-get install build-essential git xmltoman autoconf automake libtool \
libpopt-dev libconfig-dev libasound2-dev avahi-daemon libavahi-client-dev libssl-dev libsoxr-dev
Next, download Shairport Sync, configure it, compile and install it:
$ 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
$ make
$ sudo make install
By the way, the autoreconf step may take quite a while on a Raspberry Pi -- be patient!
Now to configure Shairport Sync. Here are the important options for the Shairport Sync configuration file at /etc/shairport-sync.conf:
// Sample Configuration File for Shairport Sync on a Raspberry Pi using the built-in audio DAC
general =
{
volume_range_db = 60;
};
alsa =
{
// The only place this currently differs from the main INSTALL instructions from Matt's guide at https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync/blob/master/INSTALL.md
// See https://gist.github.com/connorjan/984e6285d6c96abc807e6b0eb5724b82#gistcomment-3807438
output_device = "hw:Headphones";
mixer_control_name = "PCM";
};
The volume_range_db = 60; setting makes Shairport Sync use only the usable part of the built-in audio card mixer's attenuation range.
The next step is to enable Shairport Sync to start automatically on boot up:
# systemctl enable shairport-sync
Finally, either reboot the Pi or start the shairport-sync service:
# systemctl start shairport-sync
The Shairport Sync AirPlay service should now appear on the network with a service name made from the Pi's hostname with the first letter capitalised, e.g. hostname raspberrypi gives a service name Raspberrypi. You can change the service name and set a password in the configuration file.
Connect and enjoy...