How to Install Sunshine on macOS: A Step-by-Step Guide

Setting up Sunshine on macOS requires some preliminary steps to ensure all dependencies and configurations are in place. In this blog post, we will walk through the entire installation process, step by step, so you can easily get Sunshine running on your Mac system.

Install MacPorts

The first thing we need to do is install MacPorts, a package management system for macOS. Follow the instructions on the official MacPorts installation page.

https://www.macports.org/install.php

Add Sunshine to MacPorts

Before we can install Sunshine, we need to add it to our MacPorts source list.

Update MacPorts Sources:

echo "file:///Users/$USER/ports" | sudo tee -a /opt/local/etc/macports/sources.conf

Download Portfile for Sunshine

First, navigate to the folder where you'll place the Portfile. Create it if it doesn't exist

mkdir -p ~/ports/multimedia/sunshine

Download the Portfile using curl

curl -L -o ~/ports/multimedia/sunshine/Portfile https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine/releases/latest/download/Portfile

Update Port Index and Install Sunshine

Navigate to the ports directory and update the port index:

cd ~/ports
sudo portindex

Finally, install Sunshine:

sudo port install sunshine

Run Sunshine

Launch Sunshine by running the following command in the Terminal:

sunshine

The first time you start Sunshine, you will be asked to grant access to screen recording and your microphone.

Sunshine will start a web server, which you can access at https://localhost:47990. Remember to accept the self-signed certificate warning.

Configure macOS Audio

Install BlackHole Audio Sink

BlackHole is an audio sink that will help us in redirecting audio. Open your Terminal and run:

sudo port install BlackHole

For audio, make sure you set "BlackHole 2ch" as your input device in the Sunshine configuration. Even though "BlackHole 2ch" appears as the placeholder text, you'll have to manually type it into the field to set it.

And that's it! You have successfully installed and configured Sunshine on your macOS system. Enjoy streaming your macOS desktop and audio to other devices!