[PROBLEM] Airplay 2 troubleshooting

[TheOldPresbyope]

@Tim Curtis 

I cranked moOde up to debug logging just in case and looked at /var/log/shairport-sync.log as I set the AirPlay renderer to AirPlay 2 protocol and turned the service on. Here's what I see at the end of the log

Code:

        0.028485417 "ptp-utilities.c:223" Send control message to NQPTP: "/nqptp T"
        0.000909271 "ptp-utilities.c:163" ptp_shm_interface_open with mapped_addr = 0
        0.000708281 "ptp-utilities.c:194" ptp_shm_interface_open -- success!
        0.001091406 "ptp-utilities.c:91" get_nqptp_data -- main and secondary records don't match after 10 attempts!
        0.000517188 "shairport.c:2630" *fatal error: The nqptp service on this system, which is required for Shairport Sync to operate, does not seem to be initialised.
        0.000497916 "shairport.c:1728" emergency exit

Yikes.

According to systemctl the nqptp service, which is needed by shairport-sync for AirPlay 2 timing and synchronization, is running

Code:

pi@Sunroom:/var/log $ systemctl status nqptp
● nqptp.service - NQPTP -- Not Quite PTP
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nqptp.service; disabled; vendor pres>
    Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-11-13 22:39:47 EST; 8min ago
  Main PID: 18059 (nqptp)
     Tasks: 1 (limit: 421)
       CPU: 2.757s
    CGroup: /system.slice/nqptp.service
            └─18059 /usr/bin/nqptp

Nov 13 22:39:47 Sunroom systemd[1]: Started NQPTP -- Not Quite PTP.

Might it not be starting fast enough? Or something like that?

ETA - rereading the error message more carefully, t suspect timing isn't itself the issue.

Regards,
Kent