Share Keyboard and Mouse with Synergy

It’s very usual for a Linux user to work with multiple monitors and machines; It gives a lot of flexibility and a big boost to our performance. But switching between the different keyboards and mice can be a bit tedious.

 

For this purpose there is a hardware device that allows you to control multiple computers from a single keyboard, video monitor and mouse: a KVM switch. KVM switches are today difficult to find and not very cheap.

 

Fortunately there is a software approach to KVM switches: Synergy.

 

Synergy is used in situations where several PCs are used together, with a monitor connected to each, but are to be controlled by one user. You need only one keyboard and mouse on the desk.

 

Synergy runs on Windows, Linux and MacOS X in command line mode. There are also some cool GUIs like SynergyKM for MacOS X, QuickSynergy for Linux and MacOS X, and the self Synergy GUI for Windows.

 

The configuration can be done from the command line but trust me, having such great and minimalistic GUIs out there you don’t want to do that.

 

 

Okay, okay the main reason why this blog entry does not cover the internal commands is because there is already an excellent documentation that explains step by step the commands you can use with Synergy… You know, why reinventing the wheel.