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Synergy

Overview:

Synergy is a really great tool that lets you have more then one PC, with more then one OS, but still share one keyboard and mouse.  This is really huge, because as you add monitors (and tasks) to your desk, adding CPU's makes things run really nicely.  Another way to look at this is that you might have to use a windows PC for office apps, but still have a linux box for all your heavy lifting.  You can use your windows box as the keyboard and mouse for the linux box and make things a lot nicer. 

Configuration:

How to get this all working:

Server:

The server is the one with the keyboard and mouse.  In this example, my server is a windoz box, and it's called "1USL16054".
under the start menu, run the Synergy client, which will pull up the following window: Select the configure button.

This will pull up the Screens & Links window.  Add two screens (with the "+" button)


When creating a new screen, put the hostname in the "screen name" field, and the fqdn in the "aliases" field.  Everything else you can leave as default. 

Once the screens are built, you need to say which is to the left, and which is to the right.  You need to define BOTH, otherwise the mouse will go one way, but not the other. 

Then select the start button, and you should be good to go. 


Client:

The client is the system without a keyboard and mouse.  In this example, my client is a linux box (running Ubuntu). and it's called "oak".

make sure that your hostname is correct:
$ cat /etc/hostname
oak.americas.cmed.us


in your home directory, create a file titled ".synergy.conf" and add the following to it:
 
# sample synergy configuration file
#
# comments begin with the # character and continue to the end of
# line.  comments may appear anywhere the syntax permits.

section: screens
    # three hosts named:  moe, larry, and curly
    oak:
    1USL16054:
end

section: links
    # larry is to the right of moe and curly is above moe
    oak:
        right = 1USL16054

    # moe is to the left of larry and curly is above larry.
    # note that curly is above both moe and larry and moe
    # and larry have a symmetric connection (they're in
    # opposite directions of each other).
    1USL16054:
        left  = oak

    # larry is below curly.  if you move up from moe and then
    # down, you'll end up on larry.
end

section: aliases
    # curly is also known as shemp
    oak:
             oak.americas.cmed.us
        1USL16054:
             1USL16054.noe.cmed.us
end

then run the following command to have the client link to the server.
synergyc 1USL16054.noe.cmed.us

Screens should flash for a sec, and you should be good to go. 



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