I'm trying to find a good use for an old 32 bit 17 inch MacBook Pro. It is no longer getting upgrades from Apple because it's a 32 bit Intel chip. I was hoping to install Ubuntu or some OSS solution in order to allow it to act like a Chromecast device.
I found some old projects that enabled this, but they have stopped working:
• https://github.com/dz0ny/leapcast
• http://kodi.wiki/view/AirPlay
What would be the solution?
You could try to install a linux distro like OpenElec http://openelec.tv/
It's a distro made for home entertainement, it uses Kodi Media Center http://kodi.tv
And as you said, Kodi has an AirPlay service, it might work but it's not a sure thing
Apparently miracast (an open form of airplay) is supported in ubuntu touch buy only on specific devices which probably excludes the MBP
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/DisplayCasting
A simpler way might be to drop the live stream aspect of it and use the MBP's processing power to do the playback via its own linux installation.
You could then either use it as DLNA renderer by installing rygel , this could then be controlled from your phone (bubbleupnp on android is excellent) or other computers. If you then ran something like serviio on your computer it would seamlessly share content with the laptop (and anything else on the network).
Or you could just share the desktop via VNC and log in via your computer to control it.