Share Mouse and Keyboard With Your windows & linux machines With Synergy 1.7.1

sohail -

We often need to use two computers at one time and switching mouse & keyboard again & again is very annoying. So what to do? Yeah! We can use one mouse & keyboard with two machines at the same time. So let’s get started!

In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to use one mouse and keyboard with two computers to do work quickly.

We often use Ubuntu/Linux Mint on one computer and Windows on another computer. So in this tutorial, we will use Linux mouse & keyboard with Windows PC or laptop.

Install Synergy 1.7.1

Synergy is software for sharing one mouse and one keyboard between multiple computers on your desk allowing to seamlessly move the mouse cursor from one screen to another (works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X).

For 64-bit Systems –

$ wget https://synergy-project.org/files/nightly/synergy-1.7.1-master-3dcd36b-Linux-x86_64.deb

$ sudo dpkg -i synergy-1.7.1-master-3dcd36b-Linux-x86_64.deb

$ sudo apt-get -f install

For 32-bit Systems –

$ wget https://synergy-project.org/files/nightly/synergy-1.7.1-master-3dcd36b-Linux-i686.deb

$ sudo dpkg -i synergy-1.7.1-master-3dcd36b-Linux-i686.deb

$ sudo apt-get -f install

After you have installed Synergy open it from dash.

Follow a simple installation wizard-

  • Select language
  • Complete activation or skip activation
  • Choose Server or Client –    Remember, you will choose server or client depending on whether you are sharing your mouse and keyboard of this machine (Select Server)or using mouse and keyboard of another machine (Select Client).

Click Next and you will get the main windows where you can choose how you want to connect to the client computer. There are two options, the first one is ‘Configure interactively’ and second is ‘Use existing configuration’. The first option will give the list of computer that is connected to your network. In the second option you will need to create a configuration file (don’t worry it’s very easy).

We will select the second option and will switch to the terminal to configure synergy file.

Configure Synergy 1.7.1

In order to use synergy to connect to our Windows client (in our case Windows client, you can use the same way to connect to any client Mac OS X, Linux or any distro) with our Ubuntu/Linux Mint.

Open up the terminal and type the following command –

$ sudo gedit /home/username/.synergy.conf

sudo – To perform task as root

gedit – To use gedit program to create file

username – Username of your computer

It will open gedit text editor, paste the following with your computer info.

Note: To find your hostname in Ubuntu, type hostname in the terminal. In Windows, type hostname in the command line. To find your IP address in Ubuntu, type ifconfig in the terminal. In Windows, type ipconfig in the command line.

  section: links 
        hostnameOfServer:
        hostnameOfClient:
end

section: aliases
hostnameOfServer:
IPAddressOfServer
hostnameOfClient:
IPAddressOfServer
end

Now, add the following information to the end of the above file, depending on which case applies to you.
If your server is on the left and your client is on the right, use the following code. For a more in-depth explaination of this code, watch the end of my video.
section: links
hostnameOfServer:
right = hostnameOfClient
hostnameOfClient:
left = hostnameOfServer
end

After you have done with the above configuration save the file. If you have any problem then feel free to comment in the comment section below.

Download, Install and Configure Synergy On Windows 

  • Visit the Synergy website and download the Windows version that suits your computer.
  • Run the installer and then run Synergy.
  • Select “Share this computer’s mouse and keyboard” in order to access the configuration screen.
  • Once there, add your computers’ hostnames and then set the same left and right settings as before.
  • After configuring that, select “Use another computer’s shared keyboard and mouse”

Running the Synergy Server on Ubuntu

  • Open up a terminal window and type the following code to run the server:
    synergys -f -conf /home/username/.synergy.conf

Connecting the Windows Client to the Server

  • With the “Use another computer’s shared keyboard and mouse” radio button checked, type the IP address of the server (Ubuntu) and click start.
  • You should now be able to use your Ubuntu desktop’s keyboard and mouse with your Windows laptop.

Shortcuts for Starting and Stopping the Ubuntu Server

  • To start the server quickly, right-click the top panel and create a new launcher. In the command section, enter:
    synergys -f –conf /home/username/.synergy.conf
  • To stop the server quickly, right-click the top panel and create a new launcher. In the command section, enter: killall synergys

You can also start Synergy from menu or dash. After you open synergy from the menu you’ll have synergy running in the system tray. You can click and select start or stop.