At work I now have four computers and five screens, all controlled from one keyboard and mouse. Here’s how I did it.
The primary machine at work is a Mac Pro running Mac OS X 10.6.2 with 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors, and 4 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 RAM. This machine has two 20" Apple Cinema displays attached to it, and an Apple Keyboard and an Apple Mighty Mouse. This machine is called Palantir.
The work supplied laptop is a 15" MacBook Pro also running Mac OS X 10.6.2 with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB of 67 MHz DDR2 RAM. This machine is called Orthanc.
The final machine in the mix is my personal MacBook Pro running Mac OS 10.6.2 on an 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4 GB of 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM. This machine is called BlackPerl.
I also have a Dell Precision 390 running Windows 7 Professional, it has an Intel Core2 Quad CPU running at 2.4 GHz, and 2 GB of RAM. It’s called Khazad-dum. This machine doesn’t actively participate in the Synergy setup, it’s accessed via Remote Desktop from my Mac Pro.
According to their web site, Synergy
While you could manually start the server each time you wanted to use Synergy, a better solution is to have it started automatically each time the computer is restarted or booted. Using Lingon I was able to create a launchd plist for Synergy that starts the server component automatically. My net.sourceforge.synergy2.plist looks like this:
{{ $image := .ResourceGetMatch “synergy2.png” }} Once this file is created, Synergy will start automatically every time the machine is booted. This creates the server necessary for Synergy to work.
On each client machine I added a function to my .bashrc file to create a secure shell connection to the machine with the Synergy server, in my case called Palantir. The function looks like this:
function pssh() { ssh -L 24800:localhost:24800 userid@palantir.example.com }In addition to that function, each client machine also has a second .bashrc funtion called syn, that starts the Synergy client over the port forwarding created by the first function. It looks like this:
function syn() { /Users/username/bin/synergy-1.3.1/synergyc -f --name clientName localhost }With the Synergy server always running on my Mac Pro it is easy to start Synergy on both client machines. I open up a new Terminal tab and run the port forwarding function first (pssh). This function results in your being signed into the server, and this connection must exist in order for Synergy to work.
Next, open a new tab, which will give you a prompt on the client machine, and run the syn function to start the Synergy client. This tab will record the output generated by Synergy as you move into and out of the client via the host’s mouse.
I have discovered that Synergy is persistent; as long as the client is running and the port forwarding exists your client machine will respond to actions happening on the server. For example: if I take one of the laptops to a meeting without breaking the Synergy connection, and the screen saver starts on the server, the screen saver will be activated on the client too. This is a very minor downside as it is easy to Cmd-Tab to the Terminal instance with the Synergy tabs, and Ctrl-C out of the Synergy client and exit from the remote connection.
Synergy seems to be a dead project. No updates have happened to its source in a long time. Also, this setup which worked flawlessly under Mac OS 10.4, and 10.5, seems to be a bit flakier under 10.6. If you aren’t interested in this much effort to build a secure connection for Synergy you might want to look at Teleport, an alternative for accessing multiple computers from one keyboard and mouse.
Also, the launchd plist creation software, Lingon, is no longer being supported either.