UxPlay/README.md

This project is an early stage prototype of unix AirPlay server. Work is based on https://github.com/FD-/RPiPlay. Tested on Ubuntu 19.10 desktop. 5G Wifi connection is the must.

Features:

1. Based on Gstreamer.
2. Video and audio are supported out of the box.
3. Gstreamer decoding is plugin agnostic. Uses accelerated decoders if available. VAAPI is preferable. (but don't use VAAPI with nVidia)
4. Automatic screen orientation.

Getting it: (after sudo apt-get-install git):

git clone https://github.com/FDH2/UxPlay.git

This is a pull request on the original site https://github.com/antimof/UxPlay.git ; it may or may not ever get committed into the codebase on the original antimof site, as the antimof project may no longer be active. If it has been committed, replace "FDH2" by "antimof" in the above.

Building this version (Instructions for Ubuntu; adapt these for other Linuxes).

In a terminal window, change directories to the UxPlay directory of the downloaded source code, then do

1. sudo apt-get install cmake
2. sudo apt-get install libssl-dev libavahi-compat-libdnssd-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-libav gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad libplist-dev
3. sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-vaapi (For Intel graphics, but not nVidia graphics)
4. sudo apt-get install libx11-dev (for the X_display name fix for screen-sharing with e.g., ZOOM)
5. mkdir build
6. cd build
7. cmake .. (or "cmake -DZOOMFIX=ON .." to get a screen-sharing fix to make the mirror display windom visible to screen-sharing applications such as Zoom, see below).
8. make
9. sudo make install

Run uxplay in a terminal widow.

Note libplist-dev and (for ZOOMFIX) libx11-dev are new dependencies.

Troubleshooting:

If uxplay starts, but stalls after "Initialized server sockets(s)" appears, it is probably because a firewall is blocking access to the server on which it is running. If possible, either turn off the firewall to see if that is the problem, or get three consecutive network ports, starting at port n, opened for both tcp and udp, and use "uxplay -p n".

Try "uxplay -d " (debug log option) to see what is happening. If you use an nVidia graphics card, make sure that the gstreamer1.0-vaapi plugin for Intel graphics is NOT installed.

See the RPiPlay site https://github.com/FD-/RPiPlay.git for details of the prehistory of this project. This includes a list of all the authors of components of RPiPlay that are the basis of UxPlay.

Usage:

Options: **-n server_name **; server_name will be the name that appears offering AirPlay services to your iPad, iPhone etc. NEW: this will also now be the name shown above the mirror display window,

-s wxh (e.g. -s 1920x1080 , which is the default ) sets the display resolution (width and height, in pixels). (This may be a request made to the AirPlay client, and perhaps will not be the final resolution you get).

-p allows you to select the network ports used by UxPlay (these need to be opened if the server is behind a firewall). By itself, -p sets "legacy" ports TCP 7100, 7000, 7001, UDP 6000, 6001, 7011. -p n (e.g. -p 35000) sets TCP and UDP ports n, n+1, n+2. Ports must be in the range [1024-65535].

If the -p option is not used, the ports are chosen dynamically (randomly), which will not work if a firewall is running.

-m generates a random MAC address to use instead of the true hardware MAC number of the computer's network card. (Different server_name, MAC addresses, and network ports are needed for each running uxplay if you attempt to run two instances of uxplay on the same computer.)

-a disable audio, leaving only the video playing.

Also: image transforms that had been added to RPiPlay have been ported to UxPlay:

-f {H|V|I} implements "videoflip" image transforms: H = horizontal flip (right-left flip, or mirror image); V = vertical flip ; I = 180 degree rotation or inversion (which is the combination of H with V).

-r {R|L} 90 degree Right (clockwise) or Left (counter-clockwise) rotations; these are carried out after any -f transforms.

New features available: (v 1.3 2021-08)

1. Updates of the RAOP (AirPlay protocol, not AirPlay 2) collection of codes maintained at https://github.com/FD-/RPiPlay.git so it is current as of 2021-08-01, adding all changes since the original release of UxPlay by antimof. This involved crypto updates, replacement of the included plist library by the system-installed version, and a change over to a library llhttp for http parsing.

2. Added the -s, -p, -m, -r and -f options.

3. If "cmake -DZOOMFIX=ON .." is run before compiling, the mirrored window is now visible to screen-sharing applications such as Zoom. To compile with ZOOMFIX=ON, the X11 development libraries must be installed. (ZOOMFIX will not be needed once the upcoming gstreamer-1.20 is available, since starting with that release, the GStreamer mirror window will be natively visible for screen-sharing.) Thanks to David Ventura https://github.com/DavidVentura/UxPlay for the fix and also for getting it into gstreamer-1.20.

4. uxplay now terminates correctly when the gstreamer display window is closed, as well as when Ctrl-C is typed in the terminal window.

5. In principle, multiple instances of uxplay can be run simultaneously using the -m (generate random MAC address) option to give each a different ("local" as opposed to "universal") MAC address. If the -p option is used, they also need separate network port choices. (However, there may be a large latency, and running two instances of uxplay simultaneously on the same computer may not be very useful.)

6. Without the -p [n] option, uxplay makes a random dynamic assignment of network ports. This will not work if most ports are closed by a firewall. With e.g., -p 45000 you should open both TCP and UDP on ports 45000, 45001, 45002. Minimum allowed port is 1024, maximum is 65535. The option "-p" with no argument uses a "legacy" set of ports TCP 7100, 7000, 7001, and UDP 7011, 6000, 6001.

7. The default resolution setting is 1920x1080 width x height pixels. To change this, use "-s wxh" where w and h are positive decimals with 4 or less digits. It seems that the width and height may be negotiated with the AirPlay client, so this may not be the actual screen geometry that displays.

8. The title on the GStreamer display window is now is the Airplay server name (default "UxPlay", but can be changed with option -n), rather than the program name "uxplay" (note the difference in capitalization).

9. The avahi_compat "nag" warning on startup is suppressed, by placing "AVAHI_COMPAT_NOWARN=1" into the runtime environment when uxplay starts.