Streaming Audio from Linux to OSX with Pulseaudio

This is not for everyone, and I know that there are better things I can do (like hook up a pair of speakers). Let me explain.

I have a Fedora box that I use as a home personal server. It runs various services. However because the more monitors the better, and I believe in having as many HUDS and graphs as humanly possible, it IS running X and has a monitor attached to it. I had some music files on that server I wanted to play while I was working on my Macbook. I could mount the filesystem from my Macbook and play the file, but what fun is that? Instead, why can’t I just tell my computer where to send the audio to and have it work? Turns out, you can!

Install Pulseaudio on OSX: {% highlight bash %} brew install pulseaudio {% endhighlight %}

I am assuming X is running and some kind of DE is configured on the Linux box.

Start Pulseaudio on OSX:

{% highlight bash %} pulseaudio –load=module-native-protocol-tcp –exit-idle-time=-1 –daemon pactl load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-ip-acl= {% endhighlight %}

Tell Linux where to send the audio: {% highlight bash %} PULSE_SERVER= vlc {% endhighlight %}

PROFIT!