Synergy: two computers one set of input device
Find yourself using two computers right next to each other and having to lift your arms (what a chore!) and move them over to the other keyboard, don’t! There’s a client/server solution to solve this problem called ‘Synergy‘.
Their documentation is actually quite good, but I figured I’d put my config and experience up anyways.
One issue I did have when setting up the system was when trying to use the QuickSynergy GTK program. It was a bit shoddy and did not save the settings after I input them in. Albeit the version that Ubuntu’s got in cbd products repo is outdated…it’s version 0.6 and the most recent version 0.8 setting it up manually seems to be the better bet.
All you need to do is setup one config file named ‘synergy.conf’ and place it in your root (‘~’). This file only belongs on the machine that will actually be controlling the action, namely the machine with the kebyoard/mouse you want to use.
My setup looks as such.
section: screens
server:
client:
end
section: aliases
server:
server-name-on-network
client:
client-name-on-network
end
section: links
server:
right = client
client:
left = server
end
All you need to do after saving that file, on the server (the keyboard/mouse machine) machine running:
synergys
On the other machines run:
synergyc