This guide is based on installing onto a fresh installation of Cygwin 2.895 (64-bit installation) running in Windows 10 inside VMWare Fusion on a Mac.
The end result is a new Windows Service called CYGWIN Shairport Sync
, providing an AirPlay service by which iOS devices or other AirPlay sources on the network can play audio through the Windows device.
While getting everything working, it is suggested that you temporarily disable the Windows Firewall. Shairport Sync uses port 5000 for TCP and uses three ports for UDP, so you should leave a minimum of three, and preferably at least 10, open from 6001 upwards. The Bonjour Service, used in conjunction with the Avahi daemon, advertises Shairport Sync over a number of further ports. Once everything is working, the firewall can be re-enabled gradually.
Set up Windows 10 and install all updates. Install the Bonjour Service
, available from Apple in an installer called "Bonjour Print Services for Windows v2.0.2".
-
Download and run
Bonjour Print Services for Windows v2.0.2
-
After accepting conditions and clicking the
Install
button, the installer will do a preliminary installation, installing just the Bonjour Service. It will then pause, inviting you to install Bonjour Print Services. You can decline this, as the Bonjour Service will have been installed during the first part of the installation. -
Check Bonjour Service is running. In Windows, open the
Services
desktop application and ensure that you can seeBonjour Service
running.
-
Download the Cygwin installer from the official website. Save the installer in the Downloads folder.
-
Open a Windows
Command Prompt
window and enter the following multi-line command, omitting theC:\Users\mike>
prompt:
C:\Users\mike> Downloads\setup-x86_64.exe -P cygrunsrv,dbus,avahi,avahi-tools,gnome-keyring,libavahi-client-devel,^
libglib2.0-devel,openssl,pkg-config,autoconf,automake,clang,libdaemon-devel,popt-devel,^
make,libao-devel,openssl-devel,libtool,git,wget,flex,bison
This will do a complete installation of Cygwin and all necessary packages.
- Set up the D-Bus and Avahi Services:
Open a Cygwin64 Terminal
window in Administrator mode. Enter the following command:
$ messagebus-config
Answer yes
to all queries. Open the Windows Services
desktop application (if it's already open, refresh the screen contents: Actions > Refresh
) and look for the CYGWIN D-Bus system service
. Open it and start it.
Next, open (or return to) a Cygwin64 Terminal
window in Administrator mode. Enter the following command:
$ /usr/sbin/avahi-daemon-config
Answer yes
to all queries. Open the Windows Services
desktop application (if it's already open, refresh the screen contents: Actions > Refresh
) and look for the CYGWIN Avahi service
. Open it and start it.
Shairport Sync relies on a library – libconfig
– that is not a Cygwin package, so it must be downloaded, compiled and installed:
- Download, configure, compile and install
libconfig
:
$ git clone https://github.com/hyperrealm/libconfig.git
$ cd libconfig
$ autoreconf -fi
$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install
$ cd ..
- Download, configure and compile Shairport Sync:
$ git clone https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync.git
$ cd shairport-sync
$ git checkout development // this is temporary
$ autoreconf -fi
$ PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig ./configure --with-ao --with-ssl=openssl \
--with-avahi --with-dbus-interface --with-libdaemon --sysconfdir=/etc --with-cygwin-service
$ make
$ make install
- The last step above installs the
shairport-sync
application into/usr/local/bin
and also installs a configuration file, a service configuration script and two D-Bus policy files.
- To install Shairport Sync as a Cygwin Service, open (or return to) a
Cygwin64 Terminal
window in Administrator mode. Enter the following command:
$ shairport-sync-config
Answer yes
to all queries. Open the Windows Services
desktop application (if it's already open, refresh the screen contents: Actions > Refresh
) and look for the CYGWIN Shairport Sync
service. Open it and start it.
An AirPlay player on the local network should now be able to see an AirPlay output device bearing the computer's Device Name, e.g. DESKTOP-0RHGN0
. You can set a different name by changing the settings in the Shairport Sync configuration file, installed at /etc/shairport-sync.conf
.
Since Shairport Sync is now a Cygwin Service, you do not need to open Cygwin to launch it – it should launch automatically when Windows is booted up.
- Shairport Sync cannot access the D-Bus system bus to make its D-Bus interface available. The cause of this problem is unknown. (While the Avahi daemon can access the D-Bus system bus, Shairport Sync can not. The two applications use different D-Bus libraries, so perhaps the issue lies there.)