Using AirPlay, you can easily connect almost all your Apple devices and some third-party AirPlay-compatible smart TVs. But how to use AirPlay to mirror the screen of iPhone or iPad on Linux?
1. Install required packages
UxPlay is an open source program that can make your Linux device as an AirPlay mirroring server. There is an aur package if you are using Arch Linux. As for other distros, there are detailed building guides on the UxPlay Github repository.
2. Start the Airplay mirroring server
After installing UxPlay, some extra systemd services need to be started.
systemctl start avahi-daemon
Then open UxPlay.
uxplay
3. Select your Linux device to connect
Now open iOS control center, tap on the Screen Mirroring, you can find your Linux device as ‘UxPlay@hostname’, select it, and wait a minute. Your iOS device will connect to the Linux device.
4. Some extra settings
If you have configured auto lock on Linux, UxPlay will not prevent the desktop becoming idle and it may auto lock after a moment. So there are some extra settings to fix it.
We can modify DPMS(Display Power Management Signaling) and screensaver settings with a command.
xset s off -dpms
This command will disable DPMS and prevent screen from blanking.
I wrap all of the preceding steps into a shell script. It will open AirPlay mirroring server conveniently. And this script will close the Airplay mirroring server and resume auto-lock settings.
