User Tools

Site Tools


Sidebar






newpage

linux:network:synergy

Synergy

Synergy lets you easily share your mouse and keyboard between multiple computers on your desk, and it's Free and Open Source. Just move your mouse off the edge of one computer's screen on to another. You can even share all of your clipboards. All you need is a network connection. Synergy is cross-platform (works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux). [http://synergy-foss.org/]

Starting synergy automatically on boot

You can configure synergy to start automatically when the computer starts or when you log in. Check this page for various howtos: http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/autostart.html


Easy setup trick for Debian/Ubuntu with LXDE

Just start the synergy GUI and get it running on client and server:

 quicksynergy

When its up, you can use commands and config created by quicksynergy (see 'ps aux|grep synergy') :-)

Client:

Change username and name and IP to the values of your box:

 su username -c "/usr/bin/synergyc --name viso 192.168.42.43"

Put that cmd in a autostart hook of your display-manager. (its easier, when the X-server is already running..)

gdm has some hooks, which can be used to execute code during startup. This one is the last - its fired just after (auto) login, but you can also start synergy in 'PreSession' before the login.

 mcedit /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default

If the file doesn't exist, create it and write the synergyc command from above into it.

Server-side:

This works in the same way: put the following line in a startup hook-file of gdm/kdm/xdm: Just replace username with your login and use the config created by quicksynergy-GUI:

 su username -c "/usr/bin/synergys --config /home/username/.quicksynergy/synergy.conf" 


KDM /KDE autostart:

You can place scripts in ~/.kde/Autostart/ directory. The file must be executable and the first line must contain the 'sh-bang' to identify it as bash script:

 #!/bin/sh
 
 #... insert one of the synergy lines here.

Detailed info: http://www.ab9il.net/linux/autostarts-kde.html


Alternatively synergyclient can be started by KDM loginmanager:

Add the following to the end of /etc/kde4/kdm/Xsetup:

/usr/bin/killall synergyc
sleep 1
/usr/bin/synergyc --restart --name <CLIENT HOSTNAME>  <SERVER HOSTNAME>
LXDE autostart:

Put a .desktop file in here: ~/.config/autostart/

[Desktop Entry]                                                                                                 
Type=Application                                                                                                
Exec=/usr/bin/synergyc --name viso 192.168.1.2


Fix for wrong keyboard on client:

set correct keyboard layout after starting synergyc via setxkbmap:

1. find good values:

less /etc/default/keyboard

2. use XKBLAYOUT and XKBOPTIONS to set setxkbmap -options:

# format:
setxkbmap XKBLAYOUT -option XKBOPTIONS

# german keyboard example:
setxkbmap de -option grp:alt_shift_toggle

# apple keyboard example:
setxkbmap de -option lv3:ralt_switch,compose:rwin,terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
linux/network/synergy.txt · Last modified: 2018/10/07 20:49 by tkilla