Thursday, March 29, 2007

Synergy - Virtual KVM

I was trying out a little thing I found on suseblog.... and this thing is really sweet. It's a virtual/software KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) share package. Basically it connects all your monitors together so you can use one mouse & keyboard for them all! It rocks! I installed the server portion on my XP machine and it was very self-explanatory, but the client setup on ubuntu is a little tricky if you want it to start at boot-time. Here are the instructions I followed to success from the wonderful people on the Ubuntu Community Forum. Enjoy!


Insti Insti is offline
First Cup of Ubuntu

Join Date: Apr 2006
Beans: 4
Ubuntu Breezy 5.10 User
Starting the Synergy CLIENT on boot up.

Quote:
Originally Posted by nwgray
Admitted serious Linux noob here. What syntax would I use if I wanted to start the client and not the server (synergyc)? I run an XP and Ubuntu box side by side and it is working great. I just need synergyc to start automatically.
These instructions should work for running the synergy client on your UBUNTU machine to connect to a locally networked computer running the synergy server. (I've not actually tried them myself.)
Let us know how you get on.

NOTE:
The
will probably be an ip address that looks something like 192.168.0.1 (DON'T put in the exact string
)

To make the client run when gdm runs, but before anyone has logged in:

edit /etc/gdm/Init/Default:
Code:
sudo gedit /etc/gdm/Init/Default
Added the following lines in the middle of the file BEFORE the "sysmodmap=/etc/X11/Xmodmap" line:

Code:
SYNERGYC=`gdmwhich synergyc`
if [ x$SYNERGYC != x ] ; then
$SYNERGYC

fi

The only problem with that is once you log in it kills off the client, so you need to make it start again for you.

edited /etc/gdm/Init/Default:
Code:
sudo gedit /etc/gdm/PreSession/Default
Added the following lines in the middle of the file BEFORE the "XSETROOT=`gdmwhich xsetroot`" line:
Code:
SYNERGYC=`gdmwhich synergyc`
if [ x$SYNERGYC != x ] ; then
$SYNERGYC

fi

Log out and back in again.

The synergy client should now startup and run whenever your gdm session does.

NOTE:
The
will probably be an ip address that looks something like 192.168.0.1 (DON'T put in the exact string
)

Then follow up with:

MasterZ MasterZ is offline
5 Cups of Ubuntu

Join Date: Mar 2006
Beans: 30
Talking Re: synergy / boot up

Hahaaa

You found it !

The file "/etc/X11/gdm/Init/Default" did not have execute permissions.

I wonder if it is a bug or not, because "/etc/X11/gdm/PreSession/Default" has execute permissions. (It is a fresh install so I did not modify anything yet, except running automatrix).

Anyway for the persons who still have the same problem, just do
Code:
sudo chmod +x /etc/X11/gdm/Init/Default
and it should be ok.

Thanks again Insti !