Configure Keyboard and Mouse
One of the coolest parts of this configuration is the fact that I can use the keyboard and mouse on both systems. This means that I don’t need any special KVM hardware and I can see all of my monitors at the same time. I accomplish this with an open source program called Synergy. Essentially, there is a server and a client portion to Synergy that lets the server system’s keyboard take over control of the client system’s keyboard.
Once you have Synergy set up, it is very intuitive to use. All you will have to do is take your mouse and move it to the far right edge of Monitor 1-B. When you move it over the edge, it will immediately jump to Monitor 2-A and you will now be controlling Computer 2! To regain control of Computer 1, simply move the mouse back over to Monitor 1-B.
This feels very natural because it this is how you work in a system with multiple monitors. It takes just seconds to learn!
A few tips about setting up Synergy:
- Start up Synergy as a service on both the client and server side. Otherwise, you will not be able to control the other computer until both are logged in. And you can’t log into Computer 2 without Synergy. And you can’t start Synergy until you log into Computer 2. And…well, you get the point.
- CTRL+ALT+DELETE only runs on the server. If you want to sent the CTRL+ALT+DELETE keystrokes to the client, you need to use CTRL+ALT+PAUSE instead.
- Make sure the client and server can access each other at all times. This is why it is important that the IP addresses are set statically and that the host names are accessible even if other network services are not.
- Make sure software firewalls are not blocking Synergy ports. By default, Synergy uses port 24800 but you can set it to whatever you want.
- Synergy is not encrypted so treat it as such. I do not recommend running Synergy over a public network (which would probably not make a lot of sense anyway). If you are concerned that the information be encrypted, you can use OpenSSH to encrypt your communications.
- Always have a spare keyboard and mouse just in case. Things happen and you don’t want to be trapped without the ability to access your second system because something is wrong with the network, your network card, Synergy, etc.
- Dragging between system does not work. If you try to drag a file or window from one system to another, you will be stopped at the border.
- ScrollLock pauses Synergy. In case you want to temporarily keep the mouse and keyboard to one system, use ScrollLock to keep it there. Press it again to return to normal usage.
- Not limited to Windows. Even though we are primarily talking about Windows systems in this article, Synergy also works on Mac OSX and Linux.
On a Windows system, Synergy stores its configuration file in the C:\Windows directory. The file is called synergy.sgc. This is a test file that configures both links and screens. Here is a sample configuration file that works for two systems called Computer1 and Computer2 that is set up like out example. This will allow you to move the mouse to the right off Computer1’s screen and it will appear on Computer2’s screen.
section: screens
Computer1:
switchCorners = none +top-right
switchCornerSize = 0
Computer2:
switchCorners = none +top-right
switchCornerSize = 0
end
section: links
Computer1:
right = Computer2
Computer2:
left = Computer1
end
section: options
end
Here are some useful Synergy links:
If you found this post useful, why don't you buy me a cup of coffee to show your gratitude?
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February 19th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
So my question is how well does Synergy work with Beryl and AIGLX? My desktops are Windows XP and Ubuntu… so I haven’t tried Synergy yet.
February 19th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
ChamPro: It should work fine at Synergy works independent of the desktop interface and hooks into the mouse, keyboard and clipboard. I have two Synergy setups, one at home and one at work.
My home is Ubuntu Edgy with Beryl/Nvidia/OpenGL(Desktop) with Ubuntu Feisty (laptop) and it works lovely.
February 19th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
I’ve used synergy with ubuntu (but not beryl) I would expect it to work as faultlessly as described in this article.
February 19th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
If you use Windows in the main computer you can also use WIN2VNC. It’s a VNC client that works like Synergy but you can connect to whatever other machine that has a VNC server installed. Ideal if your other machines already have VNC server running. Everything works fine, any OS is ok, because it only needs a VNC install.
Anyway, Synergy is superior, IMHO.
February 22nd, 2007 at 1:53 pm
That’s real cool. I assume each computer needs a dedicated local IP?
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 pm
This is very interesting. Pardon my ignorance, but what type of connection cable is needed between the pc’s then?
And once its hooked up, its just a matter of using the synergy software?
Thanks.
April 5th, 2008 at 3:14 am
Thank you so much. If I set up USA operations, you´ll be someone I have to look up. I´ve seldom seen such an intelligent and thought through description with added information and exactly what I was looking for (I have several KVM´s). Great job! Since I´m in Germany it´s hard for me to buy you a cup of coffee. If I have a project in the USA I´ll be happy to ask you to join in.