5 ms·

from a purely software perspective and sort of the inverse of this, everyone should be aware of barrier, the fork/continuation of synergy https://github.com/de

from a purely software perspective and sort of the inverse of this, everyone should be aware of barrier, the fork/continuation of synergy https://github.com/debauchee/barrier https://github.com/debauchee/barrier the general concept is you could have 2, 3, 4 or more individual desktop PCs at one desk, each connected to their own displays, and one keyboard and one mouse. The keyboard and mouse are on the primary workstation, you can roll the mouse off the edge of one screen and onto another. The secondary and tertiary workstation PCs have no keyboard/mouse i/o plugged into them, just power, ethernet and display.

johnwalkr 5y ago
I use this and it works very well. I also want to add that it shares the clipboard across all of the PCs. In fact I can even copy from my iPhone and paste into a windows PC, via my MacBook. I also have a few PCs and use the input selection on my monitor to achieve the KVM aspect. The only issue I found is that if no monitor is actively connected to a windows machine, barrier server doesn’t work well, and also you can’t Remote Desktop to it. I solved both of these by adding a dummy HDMI dongle, set to a low resolution so application windows can’t get stuck there. Not a perfect solution but the best I’ve found since my goals were: to use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and not worry about limitations to refresh rate, etc.
firecall 5y ago
I can never get this to work! Installed on macOS 12.1 and Windows 10 or 11, and nothing happens! It sees the client and server just fine. But never moves over! Maybe I should the try the paid Synergy! The Logitech solution has the lag when you bang against the side of the screen, and thats no good! :-)
- stonewareslord 5y ago
  You have to configure the server by adding the clients screen to the left/right of yours. Also, I always use IP Address of the server on the client.
  - firecall 5y ago
    I'm sure I did that... I'll give it another go :-)
nyanpasu64 5y ago
I'm still waiting for https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/issues/567 https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/issues/567 to get fixed. Right now, Barrier (and possibly Synergy) creates zombie processes and leaks handles on Windows, causing the kernel to burn CPU trying to free up memory.
- walrus01 5y ago
  that's unfortunate, I can't say that I've ever tried it in a windows environment
thanatos519 5y ago
I still use x2x. Last time I used Synergy it was laggy and overcomplicated, but I might give barrier a try.
scruple 5y ago
I've been a happy synergy customer for about a decade now, I suppose but I didn't know about barrier. Thanks!
pabs3 5y ago
The active barrier maintainers have moved to working on a fork called input-leap: https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/issues/1414 https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/issues/1414
ianjsikes 5y ago
Barrier is almost perfect for my use, with one big flaw. It has no concept of individual displays. For most setups, it probably isn't a big deal. For me, I am back to a hardware KVM.
- edgan 5y ago
  Please explain. Individual displays doesn't tell me enough.

johnwalkr 5y ago

I use this and it works very well. I also want to add that it shares the clipboard across all of the PCs. In fact I can even copy from my iPhone and paste into a windows PC, via my MacBook. I also have a few PCs and use the input selection on my monitor to achieve the KVM aspect. The only issue I found is that if no monitor is actively connected to a windows machine, barrier server doesn’t work well, and also you can’t Remote Desktop to it. I solved both of these by adding a dummy HDMI dongle, set to a low resolution so application windows can’t get stuck there. Not a perfect solution but the best I’ve found since my goals were: to use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and not worry about limitations to refresh rate, etc.

firecall 5y ago

I can never get this to work! Installed on macOS 12.1 and Windows 10 or 11, and nothing happens! It sees the client and server just fine. But never moves over! Maybe I should the try the paid Synergy! The Logitech solution has the lag when you bang against the side of the screen, and thats no good! :-)

stonewareslord 5y ago
You have to configure the server by adding the clients screen to the left/right of yours. Also, I always use IP Address of the server on the client.
- firecall 5y ago
  I'm sure I did that... I'll give it another go :-)

nyanpasu64 5y ago

I'm still waiting for https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/issues/567 https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/issues/567 to get fixed. Right now, Barrier (and possibly Synergy) creates zombie processes and leaks handles on Windows, causing the kernel to burn CPU trying to free up memory.

walrus01 5y ago
that's unfortunate, I can't say that I've ever tried it in a windows environment

thanatos519 5y ago

I still use x2x. Last time I used Synergy it was laggy and overcomplicated, but I might give barrier a try.

scruple 5y ago

I've been a happy synergy customer for about a decade now, I suppose but I didn't know about barrier. Thanks!

pabs3 5y ago

The active barrier maintainers have moved to working on a fork called input-leap: https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/issues/1414 https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/issues/1414

ianjsikes 5y ago

Barrier is almost perfect for my use, with one big flaw. It has no concept of individual displays. For most setups, it probably isn't a big deal. For me, I am back to a hardware KVM.

edgan 5y ago
Please explain. Individual displays doesn't tell me enough.