Topic: AirPlay Server!

A clever guy extracted the RSA key from an Airport Express making it possible for any device to receive AirPlay streams from iOS devices and iTunes.  Seems a perfect thing to have running on a Chumby:

http://mafipulation.org/blagoblig/2011/04/08#shairport

Re: AirPlay Server!

I successfully got the script running on my Ubuntu server (amazing!!!).  It really works.  However, at the moment I only have a Chumby classic, but I've been contemplating a Chumby 8 to use this and mpd.  It seems like it should be possible to build the necessary Perl environment in Scratchbox without too much difficulity.  Anyone tried yet?  This would be truly awesome.

These are the instructions I used: http://www.xbmcfreak.nl/shairport-airpo … ss-hacked/

What I'm not clear on at the moment is how much of the apt-get stuff needs to be installed *on* the chumby vs. on the dev environment... anyone know?

Re: AirPlay Server!

You will need (at least) to get avahi (the open-source Bonjour) set up on the Chumby.  I have an idea to look into this eventually, and not sure how much work it will be.  Maybe someone already has a tar file ready with pre-built Chumby binaries of avahi? :-)

Re: AirPlay Server!

Finally got around to figuring this out.  Didn't need avahi after all, since the chumby already has mdns services.  Just had to modify some source from this project:

https://github.com/albertz/shairport

Also had to build libao to handle the sound.

I put together a tar with compiled binaries, and a launcher script:

http://www.filedropper.com/chumby-airplay

Using it right now!

Re: AirPlay Server!

@anville are you still using this? Would it work on a Sony Dash? Could you post a how to? thx!

Re: AirPlay Server!

Sebastian,

Get the download, and see if the binaries work.  There is a readme in the tar file that should explain how to run it.  I don't know if the Dash is binary compatible with the Chumby 8/Infocast 8, but it's worth a try.

If not, I think I included some notes there on what I did do compile.  You will have to apply the patch to to shairport code, and then also build libao.

Re: AirPlay Server!

@anville, it seems that the binaries are gone from filedropper. Could you upload them again ?

Re: AirPlay Server!

The Sony dash is not binary compatible with the chumby-branded devices - the dash uses a MIPS processor, while chumby devices are ARM-based.  More importantly though, the dash is a locked-down device and you can't run unauthorized binaries.

Re: AirPlay Server!

Here is a new link:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0Bz96yS … y=CMXd97oM

Hopefully Google won't go away :-)

Text from the README:

This is a port of the shairport AirPlay enumlator app to the chumby.  

Original source is found here:

    https://github.com/albertz/shairport

and a patch file is also included in this folder

---------------------------------------------------------
Also needed was a build of libao, found here:
    http://www.xiph.org/ao/

It was configured (under scratchbox2) with this command:

    sb2 ./configure --prefix=$BUILDROOT --enable-alsa --libdir=/psp 

-------------------------------------------------------

Use the script "chumby-airplay.sh" to launch the server.  Your iTunes and iOS
devices should then recognize the chumby!

The launcher script could be probably be revisited, and I think some work has been done on the original project since I built this.  Either way, I just did this as an experiment and proof of concept, and I don't plan on doing anything more with this.

Re: AirPlay Server!

This works great! Interestingly, iTunes on my laptop doesn't see the mDNS entry, while my iPhone does.

One problem: on my device, an Insignia 8", the clock screen uses 90% of the CPU time, resulting in stuttery decoding. I could see using 'nice' to lower its priority, but I'd rather nudge a fix to have that screen sleep between clock updates rather than busy-wait...

Re: AirPlay Server!

I am able to get the server running on my Chumby One and can see it as an AirPlay choice on my iPhone.  But I don't hear anything on my Chumby One.  Any tips?

Re: AirPlay Server!

I don't think your customized version is available any more. I tried compiling the source code but it ends in errors. I wouldn't know where to start modifying scripts in order to get it to compile, I'm trying this on an infocast 8".

Re: AirPlay Server!

In case any fellow travelers in 2013 are wondering if this will work on their Chumby's, it will! I just installed on my 8" Infocast, works great with no tweaking. Here are the steps:

1) download chumby-airplay.tgz from the google doc site.
2) copy to your chumby; I used this command: scp chumby-airplay.tgz root@[chumby IP address] /mnt/storage/
3) ssh into your chumby, then cd to /mnt/storage/
4) decompress: tar zxvf chumby-airplay.tgz
5) run the launch script: ./chumby-airplay/chumby-airplay.sh

I now need to refresh my memory on how to run scripts at startup. Thank you to anville for the great work!

Re: AirPlay Server!

Automatically running Airplay server after boot; I really don't know if this is the best or safest way to do it, but the following /psp/rfs1/userhook2 works if chumby-airplay.sh is unmodded and all files are all in /mnt/storage/chumby-airplay/:

curDir=$(pwd)
cd /mnt/storage/chumby-airplay/
./chumby-airplay.sh
cd $curDir