Hey folks, what’s up? It’s your boy here, back with another one of my little tech adventures. So, I recently got this new monitor, and I was like, “Why not use it with my old laptop?” But then I ran into the whole mouse and keyboard situation. I didn’t want to juggle two sets, you know? That’s when I remembered about this thing called Synergy.
Basically, Synergy, or this free version called Barrier, lets you use one mouse and keyboard across multiple computers. Pretty neat, huh? Now, I’m on Linux, so I figured I’d share how I got it all working. It wasn’t too bad, but there were a few hiccups, so pay attention!
Installing Barrier
First things first, I had to install Barrier. Turns out, it’s pretty common, so it was already in my distro’s package manager. There are like three ways to install it, I just used the apt-get method cause why not.
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Open up your terminal.
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Type in sudo apt-get update just to make sure everything’s fresh. I learned this one the hard way.
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Then, sudo apt-get install barrier and hit enter. This command will install the package.
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Follow any prompts, and boom, Barrier should be installed.
Setting up the Server
Okay, so one computer has to be the “server,” which means that’s the one with the keyboard and mouse you’ll be using. I picked my main desktop for this.
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I launched Barrier and there’s a little “Server” checkbox. Click that.
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There’s a “Configure Server” button. Click on it, and you can drag the monitor icons around to match your real-life setup. Like, I put my laptop’s icon to the right of my desktop’s since that’s how I physically arranged them.
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Double-click the client icon you just placed and enter a name for it in the “Screen Name” field. Use something simple. I wrote “MyLaptop” as the screen name.
Setting up the Client
Now, on my laptop (the “client”), I did the following:
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Installed Barrier the same way as before.
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Opened it up, but this time I checked the “Client” box.
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There should be a place to type in the server’s IP address. You can find this in the server’s Barrier window. The server’s IP address is on the main interface of Barrier server side, you may need to click the “i” icon. It looks something like 192.168.x.x.
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Type the server IP address in client side, and also don’t forget to enter the Screen name of this client. You should make sure the screen name here is consistent with what you set in the server side.
Firewall Stuff
Now, here’s where I stumbled a bit. My firewall was blocking things. If you run into issues, you might need to open up port 24800 on both computers. I just quickly disabled it for testing, which isn’t the best idea, but hey, I was in a hurry. I’ll figure out the proper firewall rules later.
Starting it Up
With all that done, I hit “Start” on both the server and the client. And guess what? It worked! I could seamlessly move my mouse between my desktop and laptop. It felt like magic, seriously.
Final Thoughts
So, yeah, that’s how I got Barrier working on my Linux machines. It’s a super handy tool if you’re rocking multiple computers. There are probably some advanced settings I could mess with, but for now, this basic setup is perfect. If you’re in a similar situation, give it a shot. It’s way better than having a cluttered desk with multiple keyboards and mice. Trust me on this one!
Alright, that’s it for this little tech tale. Catch you all in the next one! Peace out.
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