shairport-sync/INSTALL.md

Simple Installation Instructions

Here are really simple instructions for building and installing Shairport Sync on a Raspberry Pi B, 2B, 3B or 3B+. It is assumed that the Pi is running Raspbian Stretch Lite – a GUI isn't needed, since Shairport Sync runs as a daemon program.

Configure and Update

Do the usual update and upgrade:

# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade
# rpi-update

(Separately, if you haven't done so already, consider using the raspi-config tool to expand the file system to use the entire card.)

Activate the Improved Audio Driver

Check the file /boot/config.txt and, if it's not there already, add the following line:

audio_pwm_mode=2

Reboot.

Remove Old Copies

Before you begin building Shairport Sync, it's best to search for and remove any existing copies of the applicatioon, 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
$ sudo rm /usr/local/bin/shairport-sync
...

You can see that the which command located a copy of shairports-sync in the direcotry /usr/local/bin and then we removed it with the rm command. Do this until no more copies of shairport-sync are found.

Build and Install

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 libdaemon-dev libpopt-dev libconfig-dev libasound2-dev avahi-daemon libavahi-client-dev libssl-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-avahi --with-ssl=openssl --with-systemd
$ make
$ sudo make install

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 =
{
  drift_tolerance_in_seconds = 0.010;
  volume_range_db = 50;
};

alsa =
{
  output_device = "hw:0";
  mixer_control_name = "PCM";
};

The next step is to enable Shairport Sync to start automatically on boot up:

$ sudo systemctl enable shairport-sync

Finally, either reboot the Pi or start the shairport-sync service:

$ sudo systemctl start shairport-sync

The Shairport Sync AirPlay service should now appear on the network with a service name make from the Pi's hostname with the first letter capitalised, e.g. hostname raspberrypi give a service name Raspberrypi. Connect to it and enjoy...