AirPlay in Linux

PipeWire is being thinking as next-gen for Linux Audio. And in pipewire v1.4.8, there’s more improvement for AirPlay compatibility using RAOP discover.

1. Install avahi for audio handling

   sudo dnf install avahi
   

2. Setup configuration at ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/my-raop-discover.conf

   context.modules = [
   {   name = libpipewire-module-raop-discover
       args = {
           #roap.discover-local = false;
           #raop.latency.ms = 1000
           stream.rules = [
               {   matches = [
                       {    raop.ip = "~.*"
                            #raop.port = 1000
                            #raop.name = ""
                            #raop.hostname = ""
                            #raop.domain = ""
                            #raop.device = ""
                            #raop.transport = "udp" | "tcp"
                            #raop.encryption.type = "none" | "RSA" | "auth_setup" | "fp_sap25"
                            #raop.audio.codec = "PCM" | "ALAC" | "AAC" | "AAC-ELD"
                            #audio.channels = 2
                            #audio.format = "S16" | "S24" | "S32"
                            #audio.rate = 44100
                            #device.model = ""
                       }
                   ]
                   actions = {
                       create-stream = {
                           #raop.password = ""
                           stream.props = {
                               #target.object = ""
                               #media.class = "Audio/Sink"
                           }
                       }
                   }
               }
           ]
       }
   }
   ]
   

3. Enable avahi service

   sudo systemctl enable --now avahi-daemon
   

4. Load the ROAP module

   pw-cli -m load-module libpipewire-module-raop-discover
   

5. If everything goes well, you can see the AirPlay Homepod at your audio panel in Gnome (The Living Room in the screenshot is the Homepod mini).

Reference

• Pipewire documentation about ROAP configuration

• A blog post for using pipewire to play audio via AirPlay

• An older blog post for using pipewire to play audio via AirPlay

• Arch wiki about pipewire