How in the Tech

One Keyboard, One Mouse, Two Computers

By Adam Myers ⋅ December 5, 2008 ⋅ Tags: System Administration

How many computers do you have in your home office? If you are like many it’s more than one – each with it’s own keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Going about your day involves propelling yourself from one desk so your chair wheels across the floor to the other work area. A pretty low-tech approach don’t you think? Some have solved this silliness by installing remote viewing/control applications like VNC or using Remote Desktop but each have their own limitations. Instead, I have a different suggestion and it’s called Synergy.

Synergy lets you share a single mouse and keyboard with multiple computers irregardless of the running operating systems. Switching between computers is as simple as moving your mouse off the screen. Copy and paste between computers is equally as easy with the unified clipboard. This free and open source program is a game changer for any of us that must work between multiple computers in the same room. Here’s how you go about setting it up yourself.

1. Download and install the appropriate release of Synergy on each computer you wish to control. The current release of Synergy is available for Windows (SynergyInstaller.exe), Fedora/Redhat (synergy.rpm), and OSX (synergy.OSX.tar.gz).
2. Determine which computer you will designate as the server – that is, which keyboard and mouse pair do you want to use to control the other systems. The systems that are being controlled remotely are considered the client(s).
3. 95% of the configuration revolves around the server, unsurprisingly. Run Synergy from the server and select the radio button next to Share this computer’s keyboard and mouse (server). Click the now enabled Configure… button.



4. Click the + below the Screens form field. In the Screen Name field provide the hostname of the server – providing the hostname simplifies the configuration here but technically you could name the screen anything. Repeat this process from this window for all other client hostnames. All the other options aren’t really necessary for our configuration, so OK out of the dialog.



5. You should now be back on the initial Configure window – Screens & Links. This is really the only tricky part in the configuration of Synergy. We must link the screens to the server by defining their layout and orientation with respect to one another.



6. Under the Links header define your screen layouts – remember that in our terminology a screen is really equivalent to a single computer (which may or may not have multiple monitors attached). The defining of links may look intimidating because it allows for the flexibility of not only horizontal screen alignments, but vertical and diagonal as well. I’ve got a pretty common layout and that is the example you see here. Click OK once you are satisfied.



7. Click Test. The server will start and a console window will launch showing any errors or warnings. Our setup is pretty straightforward so hopefully there aren’t any errors. However, to help in debugging any error message I suggest you visit Synergy’s site directly.



8. Now, on the client launch Synergy except this time choose the radio button next to User another computer’s shared keyboard and mouse (client). Provide the hostname/screen name of the server in the form field. Lastly, click Test to verify everything is correct.



9. Assuming you’ve made it this far without problems, everything is configured and you can start Synergy on the client and server by clicking the Start button in the Synergy window. To switch your mouse and keyboard to the second computer just move your mouse off the screen in the direction of your Links defined above.