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docker-airconnect

AirConnect container for turning Chromecast into Airplay targets
On DockerHub: https://hub.docker.com/r/1activegeek/airconnect
On GitHub: https://github.com/1activegeek/docker-airconnect

This is a containerized build of the fantastics program by philippe44 called AirConnect. It allows you to be able to use AirPlay to push audio to Chromecast and UPNP based devices. There are some advanced details and information that you should review on his GitHub Project. For the most part this container needs nothing more than to launch it using Host networking.

The main purpose for building this container over the others out there, is that this will always update to the latest version of the app as pulled from the original GitHub page. Currently there is another popular container that is not updated. This uses runtime scripting to ensure it will always pull the latest version of the binary before running - without intervention by me. It also uses the base image produced by the LS.io team to reduce footprint.

Multi-arch support has been introduced, so there should be seamless use on AMD64, ARM64, and ARM devices.

Running

This can be run using a docker compose file or a standard docker run command.

Sample Docker run config:

docker run -d --net=host 1activegeek/airconnect

Sample Docker compose config using volume bind and environment variable:

services:
  airconnect:
    network_mode: host
    image: 1activegeek/airconnect
    volumes:
      - /home/root/data/airconnect:/config
    environment:
      - AIRCAST_VAR=-x /config/config.xml
      - AIRUPNP_VAR=kill
    restart: unless-stopped

If you would like to run a specific version of AirConnect, or revert to a previous known good working version (in case my container breaks or other issues found in the original application itself) you can now specify the Release Version corresponding to the releases from the original developer of the application as found here: https://github.com/philippe44/AirConnect/releases. This can be done by using a similar command, but inserting the release number after the image name. For example to run release 1.0.8 use:

docker run -d --net=host 1activegeek/airconnect:1.0.8

I've introduced a secondary function as well in case you'd like to run the container with specifc runtime variables appended to the run config. This includes things such as the examples below in the troubleshooting section. It's purpose is more aimed at folks who'd like to use a custom configuration file for example, which requires running with -x <name of file> to be able to run this config.

To utilize this, please use the following environment variables when you run the container:

• AIRCAST_VAR This will be for variables to send to the aircast runtime used for integration with Chromecast based devices
• AIRUPNP_VAR This will be for variables to send to the airupnp runtime used for integration with Sonos and UPnP based devices
  • If you alter this variable you need to add in -l 1000:2000 per the devs notes for Sonos/Heos players. If you don't alter the variable, I include this by default in the docker files

If you do not wish to run both services and only need one, you can choose to kill the second service on startup so that it does not run. To do this, use the appropriate variable from above (AIRCAST_VAR/AIRUPNP_VAR) and set it equal to kill. This will remove the other service from the startup files and you should not see both services running if you view the docker container logs.

Runtime Commands

Usage: [options]
  -b < address>        network address to bind to
  -c <mp3[:<rate>]|flc[:0..9]|wav>    audio format send to player
  -x <config file>    read config from file (default is ./config.xml)
  -i <config file>    discover players, save <config file> and exit
  -I             auto save config at every network scan
  -l <[rtp][:http][:f]>    RTP and HTTP latency (ms), ':f' forces silence fill
  -r             let timing reference drift (no click)
  -f <logfile>        Write debug to logfile
  -p <pid file>        write PID in file
  -d <log>=<level>    Set logging level, logs: all|raop|main|util|cast, level: error|warn|info|debug|sdebug
  -Z             NOT interactive
  -k             Immediate exit on SIGQUIT and SIGTERM
  -t             License terms

Troubleshooting

If you need to attempt to dig into troubleshooting and see the logs realtime in the container, use the following examples to help dig into diagnosis.

docker exec -it <name of container> bash

Once inside the container, you can use standard config options to run the app as outlined by the creator. The app is located in the /bin directory. Both the UPNP and Cast versions of the file are being run in this container. (sub your platform below if not running x86-64 - arm64 = aarch64, arm = arm).

./aircast-x86-64 --h - will provide you a list of commands that can be run via the app

./aircast-x86-64 -d all=debug - will run the app and output a debug based log in an interactive mode

If you perform any realtime testing, it is suggested to completely restart the container after testing to be sure there are no incompatibilities that arise with running it in daemon mode while also running it interactively.

ARMv7 HAS BEEN DEPRECATED.

Unfortunately the base I use, has deprecated ARMv7 support. My only alternative to support is to re-base the entire container which I don't currently have cycles for. 2 Options are now available if you are using ARMv7 platforms: one is to pin this container version to 1.0.8 until something changes (last supported ARMv7 release of my container) or check out https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/sidevesh/airconnect which is a fork from sidevesh that is only intended for ARMv7 deployments.

Changelog

2024-07-15: Large change to update to support for s6 v3 since v2 has been deprecated by upstream container image provider. Simplified launch scritp, simplified service files, easier separation of both services, less "stuff" overall. 2023-10-21: Package maintainer changed the release asset output, had to move from tarball to zip package. No major change should be experienced as the output is still the same. Also added link in docs to an ARMv7 repo for those using older devices stuck on ARMv7 release maintained by sidevesh.
2023-07-08: The LS.io team has officially deprecated building ARMv7 base images. Had to deprecate this support as well. Attempted to comment out in case changes happen in the future to remedy this.
2022-11-28: Some recent updates to handle changes by the original developer in formatting for binary file names. More efficient workflow runs as well. Added in output of tags for AirConnect versions, allowing you to specifically use a specific version of AirConnect.
2022-01-03: Fixed the multi-arch builds with the new setup on GH actions, migrated to single unified Dockerfile deployment
2021-12-12: Modified the builder to use the docker buildx GH actions, and manifest to be just the single tag. Additionally the Binary pull has been moved from startup script, to the actual dockerfile. This results in the images being a point-in-time version of the current airconnect binaries vs always running the latest. kill function introduced for the AIRUPNP_VAR/AIRCAST_VAR variables which will stop the appropriate service from running (in case you are not using it).