Using Synergy to share a mouse and keyboard between Windows 8 and Raspberry PI
I wanted to install the popular keyboard sharing software Synergy between my Windows 8 PC and a Raspberry PI running Linux. I was just starting to learn Linux and needed to get this keyboard/mouse sharing working so I could start getting used to this new (for me) OS. Unfortunately I ran into a problem making a connection between the two PCs. Not knowing my way around Linux or the Raspberry PI made it very difficult to troubleshoot…. ironically it ended up being an issue with Windows 8 Synergy software!
ipc connection error, connection refused
2013-07-07T21:01:39 NOTE: connecting to ‘192.168.0.100’: 192.168.0.100:24800
/build/synergy-E0XzMY/synergy-1.3.8/src/lib/client/CClient.cpp,115
2013-07-07T21:01:39 WARNING: failed to connect to server: Connection refused
/build/synergy-E0XzMY/synergy-1.3.8/src/cmd/synergyc/synergyc.cpp,274
2013-07-07T21:01:39 DEBUG: retry in 1 seconds
NOTE: connecting to service… ERROR:
The problem ended up being an issue with the Synergy software itself on the Windows machine. I have Windows 8 64 bit and I logically installed Synergy for 64 bit. That ended up being a big mistake. Maybe the 64 bit version is useful on some setup, but apparently not with the RaspberryPI.
Solution:
Uninstalling the 64 bit version and downloading the 32 bit version of Synergy solved the problem.
After that it was easy as PI to set up Synergy between the two PCs! Especially since I learned a lot about both Linux and the Raspberry PI in my search for a solution.
If you are looking for instructions to set up Synergy on Linux I suggest this page
I installed both synergy and quicksynergy:
sudo apt-get install synergy
sudo apt-get install quicksynergy
At that point you can just type quicksynergy to start the easy setup. For setting up a client just click the [Use] tab, enter the IP address of the host/server and then enter raspberrypi as the screen name. This is a great way to make sure everything is working correctly. After that you can just start synergy in client mode with ‘synergyc -f <server IP address>’
Next – Running Synergy automatically at desktop startup
Synergy isn’t too helpful if it’s not running and you have no keyboard on the Raspberry PI to get it running…… since I was planning on always using the built in desktop for the PI I decided to have Synergy auto start with the desktop.
Step 1.
Open a Terminal session on the Pi. /home/pi. If you are not in the directory /home/pi , change to it by typing:
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$ cd /home/pi
Then cd to the .config directory by typing:
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$ cd .config
The ‘.’ at the start of the folder name is for hidden folders that will not show up normally.
Step 2.
Create a new directory inside .config called ‘autostart’.
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$ mkdir autostart
cd into that new directory by typing:
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$ cd autostart
Step 3.
All that remains is to edit a new configuration file. So type the following command to open the nano editor on the new file:
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$ nano synergy.desktop
Edit the contents of the file with the following text.
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[Desktop Entry]
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Type=Application
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Name=synergy
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Exec=synergyc -f 192.168.0.100
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StartupNotify=false
Replace the ip address in line 4 with the ip address of your synergy server PC
Type ctrl-X and then Y to save the changes to the file.
Thats all there is to it. The next time you reboot, synergy will restart in client mode automatically. At this point you should be able to connect your USB wifi adapter directly to the RaspberryPI and free up any ports used for the mouse and keyboard….. Yeah!
If you are looking for a keyboard sharing application for Windows only I highly recommend Input Director
I have been using Input Director for over 4 years on 2 Windows PCs at my work. It’s free and I found it very easy to set up with many useful features… and stable!