Stream Audio over WiFi from Linux Ubuntu PC to Android Phone

Stream audio over WiFi using SoundWire by GeorgieLabs. It comes with a server that you install on your Linux machine and an Android app for your phone

Why? Because i have more Android phones lying around than speakers.. I am using an Android phone as a wireless speaker for my PC

SoundWire by GeorgieLabs is an audio streaming system that lets you stream audio between devices be it Windows/macOS/Linux PCs or Android phones. You need to install the server on your PC from which you want to stream the audio, and the client in my case was the android app.

• SoundWire Audio server
• Android app

Download the appropriate Linux version of SoundWire Audio server for your machine (32 or 64 bit).

Download location: ~/Downloads Install location: /opt/SoundWireServer/

1# Download and extract SwoundWire Server
2wget https://georgielabs.net/SoundWire_Server_linux64.tar.gz -O ~/Downloads/SoundWireServer.tar.gz
3
4tar xvf ~/Downloads/SoundWireServer.tar.gz

1# Move to a place that is in PATH
2sudo mv ~/Downloads/SoundWireServer /opt/

1# install required dependencies
2sudo apt-get install -y pavucontrol libportaudio2 libqt5widgets5

You can run the software directly from the command line by specifying the full path, or you can create a menu entry for it (instructions below) and start from there.

1# run
2/opt/SoundWireServer 

Create Desktop shortcut / Menu entry

A desktop shortcut file comes with the download. You need to update it to change the paths to the location of the executable and the icon for it. And move the file to the right location (Desktop entry files go in /usr/share/applications).

1# create Desktop shortcut / Menu entry
2mv /opt/SoundWireServer/SoundWire-Server.desktop /usr/share/applications 

Here are the contents of the SoundWire-Server.desktop file after updating the paths for the executable and the icon.

 1#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
 2# SoundWire-Server.desktop
 3
 4[Desktop Entry]
 5Name=SoundWire Server
 6Comment=Server program for SoundWire Android app
 7
 8# Path should be set properly to find executable, or give full pathname here
 9Exec=/opt/SoundWireServer/SoundWireServer
10
11# Place icon file in ~/.local/share/icons or similar, or give full pathname
12Icon=/opt/SoundWireServer/sw-icon.xpm
13
14# The following should match the executable basename
15StartupWMClass=SoundWireServer
16
17Terminal=false
18Type=Application
19Categories=AudioVideo;Audio;

 1#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
 2
 3[Desktop Entry]
 4Name=SoundWire Server
 5Comment=Server program for SoundWire Android app
 6Exec=/opt/SoundWireServer/SoundWireServer
 7Icon=/opt/SoundWireServer/sw-icon.xpm
 8StartupWMClass=SoundWireServer
 9Terminal=false
10Type=Application
11Categories=AudioVideo;Audio;

Connecting with the Client

SoundWire server shows an IP address that you need to connect by entering it on the Android app. Both devices (the server and the client) need to be connected to the same WiFi network.