5 ms·

I wrote my own replacement for synergy years ago. It's called touchstream[0] -- it's unlikely to be as full features as, but it's TONS lighter, and I've been us

I wrote my own replacement for synergy years ago. It's called touchstream[0] -- it's unlikely to be as full features as, but it's TONS lighter, and I've been using between my mac workstation and my linux workstation for a good many years without a single issue. Mileage may very, etc etc -- I implemented the features I needed! [0]: https://github.com/buserror/touchstream https://github.com/buserror/touchstream

morganvachon 8y ago
This looks awesome and may get me to stop using Synergy altogether! One of my daily use machines at work is a very old laptop I'm basically using as a second screen via Lubuntu, and Synergy is the most resource-heavy program on it by far. It's also really glitchy, causing me to have to stop working and fix it several times a day.
- buserror 8y ago
  Ah, that's exactly the problem I had with synergy really. Randomly failing -- not terribly nice when one uses it for work. Mine takes peanuts for resources, and I have uptimes of weeks or more on my machines. My current setup is a 'mac' with a 4K screen and a magic touchpad, and a bigass linux workstation alongside, with a 4K screen also. This one has no keyboard or mouse, and never had! Feel free to ping me if you need any help, I know it doesn't handle all the scenarios, but with a bit of incentive I'd be very happy to work on it a bit more! Right now It Works(TM) ;-)
  - morganvachon 8y ago
    > Right now It Works(TM) ;-) That's exactly what I need, no more. :-) I'm at home now, I think I may test it out on another very old laptop with Slackware. I may even dig my OpenBSD laptop out of the closet and see if I can compile it for that platform. My only Mac right now is a C2D mini with 10.6 so I hope it will compile and run there. +++ So I just tried to compile on my Elementary OS workstation and got a few errors even after meeting all (I think) of the dependencies. I'm not a programmer beyond the occasional bash script, so I probably missed something somewhere. I have ruby, graphviz, and exuberant-ctags installed, and the usual basic build tools for a Debian based OS. Here's an example of an error, there were a few different ones with the same format: src/ts_mux.c: In function ‘data_start’: src/ts_mux.c:339:2: error: ignoring return value of ‘write’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Werror=unused-result] write(r->socket, msg, strlen(msg)+1);
    - buserror 8y ago
      Ah, that must be ubugtu derivative with -Werror by default I suppose? That's your problem, it's a pedantic warning ar best, not an error.
      - morganvachon 8y ago
        Yep, Elementary is based on Ubuntu 16.04. Unfortunately it's not completing the build. I get this: cc1: all warnings being treated as errors and cc: error: obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/touchstream.o: No such file or directory cc: error: obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_signal.o: No such file or directory cc: error: obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_mux.o: No such file or directory Error: cc -o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/touchstream.bin obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/touchstream.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_display.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_signal.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_master.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_clipboard.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_display_proxy.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_mux.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_xorg_keymap.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_xorg_client.o -lpthread -lX11 -lXtst -lXfixes -lXext -Wl,--relax,--gc-sections touchstream Done No binaries are created. I'll try it on a Slackware box, I usually never have odd issues building from source on that OS. +++ Thanks to j1elo above, I modified the Makefile.common and removed the -Werror CFLAG, and it compiled successfully. Now to do the same on the Mac and see what I get. :-)
    - j1elo 8y ago
      Edit Makefile.common and remove -Werror from there. This is a widespread mistake, using -Werror unconditionally. This flag forbids all warning messages from the compiler, no matter how superficial the actual issue is. -Werror is a very good tool to use during development, i.e. for private (Debug) builds, but it should be disabled for publicly released code (aka Release), or at least a shortcut should always be provided for people who are not interested in editing the code, only in compiling it (e.g. maintainers). New warnings are added every day so to speak, so with -Werror you never know if your code will stop compiling any time soon. But sadly not many people account for that in their Makefiles.
      - morganvachon 8y ago
        Gotcha, thanks! I'll give it a whirl. +++ And it worked! Thanks for that! I'll file that in my notes for building on Ubuntu and derivatives for the future.
- craftyguy 8y ago
  Careful, it doesn't appear to support encrypting traffic between systems, which means anyone can intercept mouse movements and keyboard presses, and introduce their own.
  - buserror 8y ago
    My use is at home, on my own local switch, on the same desk. If anyone can sniff that, I already have serious other problems.
    - craftyguy 8y ago
      Sure, but others may not realize this so I thought it was worth pointing out... since many folks here in the thread seems to be using synergy in the office.
  - morganvachon 8y ago
    Thanks. I'm the sysadmin at work, there are twelve employees, and none of them know much more than how to turn on a PC and use Office and Quickbooks. I'll definitely put it through its paces at home before bringing it to the office though.
    - craftyguy 8y ago
      Consider folks who have gained unauthorized access to your network, possibly by one of your 12 employeers plugging in some random usb drive or clicking on some email attachment... that's what you'd have to worry about more than them.
      - morganvachon 8y ago
        I consider that kind of thing every day as part of my job. :-) Email is locked down pretty tight and I'm the only one who uses flash drives. That said, I won't use a utility like this at work until I've fully vetted it at home first. Besides, if a bad actor has breached my network, I have bigger problems than keylogging between two workstations.
darklajid 8y ago
I understand you built this for yourself and your use case. Did I read this correctly in that it _needs_ a mac (because only that can be the server) though? Came to look if this could replace my linux to linux or - more common here - windows to linux scenarios. The latter is straight out I guess, but the former seems impossible too for now, right?
- buserror 8y ago
  Hi -- yeah there is no support code for windows; I don't use a windows desktop so I never had a need for it -- however the 'skeleton' is in thre, perhaps you could do it by backporting a few bits and pieces of the old synergy..

morganvachon 8y ago

This looks awesome and may get me to stop using Synergy altogether! One of my daily use machines at work is a very old laptop I'm basically using as a second screen via Lubuntu, and Synergy is the most resource-heavy program on it by far. It's also really glitchy, causing me to have to stop working and fix it several times a day.

buserror 8y ago
Ah, that's exactly the problem I had with synergy really. Randomly failing -- not terribly nice when one uses it for work. Mine takes peanuts for resources, and I have uptimes of weeks or more on my machines. My current setup is a 'mac' with a 4K screen and a magic touchpad, and a bigass linux workstation alongside, with a 4K screen also. This one has no keyboard or mouse, and never had! Feel free to ping me if you need any help, I know it doesn't handle all the scenarios, but with a bit of incentive I'd be very happy to work on it a bit more! Right now It Works(TM) ;-)
- morganvachon 8y ago
  > Right now It Works(TM) ;-) That's exactly what I need, no more. :-) I'm at home now, I think I may test it out on another very old laptop with Slackware. I may even dig my OpenBSD laptop out of the closet and see if I can compile it for that platform. My only Mac right now is a C2D mini with 10.6 so I hope it will compile and run there. +++ So I just tried to compile on my Elementary OS workstation and got a few errors even after meeting all (I think) of the dependencies. I'm not a programmer beyond the occasional bash script, so I probably missed something somewhere. I have ruby, graphviz, and exuberant-ctags installed, and the usual basic build tools for a Debian based OS. Here's an example of an error, there were a few different ones with the same format: src/ts_mux.c: In function ‘data_start’: src/ts_mux.c:339:2: error: ignoring return value of ‘write’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Werror=unused-result] write(r->socket, msg, strlen(msg)+1);
  - buserror 8y ago
    Ah, that must be ubugtu derivative with -Werror by default I suppose? That's your problem, it's a pedantic warning ar best, not an error.
    - morganvachon 8y ago
      Yep, Elementary is based on Ubuntu 16.04. Unfortunately it's not completing the build. I get this: cc1: all warnings being treated as errors and cc: error: obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/touchstream.o: No such file or directory cc: error: obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_signal.o: No such file or directory cc: error: obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_mux.o: No such file or directory Error: cc -o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/touchstream.bin obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/touchstream.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_display.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_signal.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_master.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_clipboard.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_display_proxy.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_mux.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_xorg_keymap.o obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/ts_xorg_client.o -lpthread -lX11 -lXtst -lXfixes -lXext -Wl,--relax,--gc-sections touchstream Done No binaries are created. I'll try it on a Slackware box, I usually never have odd issues building from source on that OS. +++ Thanks to j1elo above, I modified the Makefile.common and removed the -Werror CFLAG, and it compiled successfully. Now to do the same on the Mac and see what I get. :-)
  - j1elo 8y ago
    Edit Makefile.common and remove -Werror from there. This is a widespread mistake, using -Werror unconditionally. This flag forbids all warning messages from the compiler, no matter how superficial the actual issue is. -Werror is a very good tool to use during development, i.e. for private (Debug) builds, but it should be disabled for publicly released code (aka Release), or at least a shortcut should always be provided for people who are not interested in editing the code, only in compiling it (e.g. maintainers). New warnings are added every day so to speak, so with -Werror you never know if your code will stop compiling any time soon. But sadly not many people account for that in their Makefiles.
    - morganvachon 8y ago
      Gotcha, thanks! I'll give it a whirl. +++ And it worked! Thanks for that! I'll file that in my notes for building on Ubuntu and derivatives for the future.
craftyguy 8y ago
Careful, it doesn't appear to support encrypting traffic between systems, which means anyone can intercept mouse movements and keyboard presses, and introduce their own.
- buserror 8y ago
  My use is at home, on my own local switch, on the same desk. If anyone can sniff that, I already have serious other problems.
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    Sure, but others may not realize this so I thought it was worth pointing out... since many folks here in the thread seems to be using synergy in the office.
- morganvachon 8y ago
  Thanks. I'm the sysadmin at work, there are twelve employees, and none of them know much more than how to turn on a PC and use Office and Quickbooks. I'll definitely put it through its paces at home before bringing it to the office though.
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    Consider folks who have gained unauthorized access to your network, possibly by one of your 12 employeers plugging in some random usb drive or clicking on some email attachment... that's what you'd have to worry about more than them.
    - morganvachon 8y ago
      I consider that kind of thing every day as part of my job. :-) Email is locked down pretty tight and I'm the only one who uses flash drives. That said, I won't use a utility like this at work until I've fully vetted it at home first. Besides, if a bad actor has breached my network, I have bigger problems than keylogging between two workstations.

darklajid 8y ago

I understand you built this for yourself and your use case. Did I read this correctly in that it _needs_ a mac (because only that can be the server) though? Came to look if this could replace my linux to linux or - more common here - windows to linux scenarios. The latter is straight out I guess, but the former seems impossible too for now, right?

buserror 8y ago
Hi -- yeah there is no support code for windows; I don't use a windows desktop so I never had a need for it -- however the 'skeleton' is in thre, perhaps you could do it by backporting a few bits and pieces of the old synergy..