Use Mac Keyboard and Mouse to control other computers

Recently I have been played with Sissy's Acer laptop. The machine was having trouble with any version of Windows, the problem was it always hung or froze if too much applications running. I am not sure what caused the problem, since it has 2 GB of RAM, and 1.8 Ghz Pentium M. I am planning to install Ubuntu Linux in this troublesome laptop.

After rescuing her data in drive D:, I wiped out the primary partition and installed Ubuntu Hardy Heron. Ubuntu Linux works great, everything is worked out of the box, the only thing that's not work out of the box is 3D driver. Thanks to large Ubuntu Repositories, there is a binary package driver of Ati Mobility Radeon X700.

Right now the Acer Laptop is one of my toys. It sit on the left of my Macbook Pro, act as web browsers (firefox sync its bookmark with weaves). I am planning to produce icons using Inkscape again. 

I hate to use it's trackpad and laptop's keyboard. I know a little program called Synergy that very simillar with Teleport. The differ is that Synergy available on Windows, Linux and Mac, whic Teleport is Mac only. The function of the application is to share one keyboard and mouse to control other machines.

Here are some step by step how to set-up SynergyKM.

1. Step one install SynergyKM

Installing Synergy in Ubuntu is very easy, all i have to do is download Synergy using synaptic. Just do search "Synergy" in Synaptic Package Manager, and install it.

Download SynergyKM, and install it by execute the SynergyKM Installer.

SynergyKM is a GUI front end of Synergy for Mac. Configuring with interface makes easier to layout the screens than configuring using text file. 

I choose "Install Synergy for current user only".

In few seconds it will be available in System Preferences.

2. Setup the server

Open up System Preference. My keyboard and Mouse is attached to my Macbook Pro, that's mean my MBP is a server, to do that I choose "Share my kerboard and mouse" option.

3. Computers layout

This screen is where you can layout the computers, where is the other computer position, and what is the computer name on the left, right, bottom or top.

As you can see I only have two computers that will be syncing with Synergy, MBP on the right and Acer Laptop on the left.

The name of the display must match with local network computer name. In the Mac you can find you computer name in Sharing Preference. In Ubuntu you can find it in Network Settings.

If everything setup correctly, start the Synaptic Server in the General tab. If it complains about unknown screen error, it means you have enter a wrong computer name, try again and run push the button again.

h4. Connecting

To make Ubuntu connect to MacBook Pro, in terminal I execute The Synergy Client command.

synergy -f Ncus-MBP.local

The command mean that Synergy run in foreground instead of background, this is meant for testing wether the client able to connect to server or not. The command tells Ubuntu to connect to my MacBook Pro. Using IP address instead computer name also works.

If the client able to connect, use CTRL+C in terminal to quit the command and execute synergy client one more time without -f command.

After testing, I found out that Synergy is so lag. There's a workarround, run synergy as root. According to some thread in Ubuntu Forums, this is a bug in kernel.