[Problem]: Podman issue: Latest container not start with podman on Raspberry Pi 3B+ with Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie) due to error: Shairport Sync can not find the nqptp service on this system.

[DaChunky]

What happened?

Hi,

thanks for you effort to use Airplay on a Linux device.

I've just created a fresh installation of 64bit Raspberry OS on a Raspberry 3B+ and want to run Shairport Sync within a container. I'm using podman and your latest container image from docker.io as follows:

podman run --rm --cap-add=SYS_NICE --net host --device /dev/snd mikebrady/shairport-sync:latest

The container does start but ends in the following fatal error:

Shairport Sync Startup (Mon Apr 20 06:34:44 UTC 2026)
Starting NQPTP (Mon Apr 20 06:34:44 UTC 2026)
Finished startup tasks (Mon Apr 20 06:34:44 UTC 2026), starting Shairport Sync.
Can not set realtime properties of a thread.
fatal error: Shairport Sync can not find the nqptp service on this system.  Is nqptp installed and running?

My device is connected via eth0 and wifi is disabled. Do you ever user your container with podman or do you only support Docker?

Thanks for your help!

Relevant log output

Shairport Sync Startup (Mon Apr 20 06:34:44 UTC 2026)
Starting NQPTP (Mon Apr 20 06:34:44 UTC 2026)
Finished startup tasks (Mon Apr 20 06:34:44 UTC 2026), starting Shairport Sync.
Can not set realtime properties of a thread.
fatal error: Shairport Sync can not find the nqptp service on this system.  Is nqptp installed and running?

System Information.

Raspberry Pi 3B+
64bit Raspberry OS

Configuration Information.

No configuration provided. Container isn't starting up.

PulseAudio or PipeWire installed?

• Check if your system uses a Sound Server.

How did you install Shairport Sync?

Docker

Check previous issues

• Confirm

[mikebrady]

Thanks for the post. Personally I don't use podman -- maybe some other contributors can help.

[p3ck]

I use podman and quadlets with no problem. here is my file:

`cat /etc/containers/systemd/shairport-sync.container

shairport-sync.container

[Container]
ContainerName=shairport-sync
Image=docker.io/mikebrady/shairport-sync:latest
AutoUpdate=registry
Network=host
AddDevice=/dev/snd
Exec=-v -- -c Digital

[Service]
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy = multi-user.target`

[p3ck]

maybe related to running as a user instead of root?

[DaChunky]

Thanks for sharing. Yes, the main idea of using podman is, to have a rootless instance, I've installed docker as well and the application is working. I will try to run the container with podman with special rights and see if it work out.