Just tried Barrier

[skallal]

I came across "Barrier" which acts as a partial software KVM switch or a KM without the V.

I used a KVM for a couple years at home to switch keyboard, mouse, and monitor between two Windows 10 PCs. I worked on contract where they sent me a mini PC monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I only got the mini PC out of the box as I didn't want their keyboard and mouse. I had an old DVI KVM setting in the box unused. Had to buy an adapter for DisplayPort to DVI and was set. Used this for two years and it worked like a champ. But it was limited to two machines.

The other option is various remote desktop options. I've been using this option at home recently. Mostly used Nomachine recommended by @CharlesV and I agree it's about the best for desktop to deskop.

Then I saw an article about Syngery which is the commercial version of Barrier. Barrier doesn't have the most helpful docs imho. I even started compiling it, but soon realized MXPI has it on both x64 and arm64. And they have a Windows x64 version. So now I have my MX 23 XFCE, Windows PC, and MX Raspberry Pi 4B and working together. The MX desktop is the server and has the keyboard & mouse directly connected. The other two machines are clients. It took a few tries for the Windows install to persist the server IP address, but noticed finally persisted it after a shutdown and startup. And it works as a client on my RPI 4B.

The biggest downside is having to toggle between video inputs on my monitor. It was meant to be used with a monitor on each machine. Selecting which machine has focus is a matter of moving the mouse off screen. With multiple monitors, it would a breeze. But with a single monitor, I have to careful about moving the mouse off screen.

I'll probably switch the server machine over the the RPi 4B as it's powered up 24/7.

This would have NOT been an option with the work PC I used for two years as it was on a VPN and NOT visible to other machines on my LAN. A hardware KVM is a must in that situation.

Hopefully this will solve some of my single monitor/keyboard/mouse issues.

[CharlesV]

my KVM has been punted to the garage ;-/ I used it for SO many years.

I have have three physical machines at my desk, with four monitors. All monitors are connected to my main rig, then 3 to my second machine and one connected to my third machine. So far (last 2 years) I have been able to do everything I needed with NoMachine and once in a while changing monitor input to the other machines.

But I will have to give Barrier a look. Sound interesting!. (Synergy wasnt - had issues with different monitor layouts and more - I cannot remember exactly what. )

[skallal]

@CharlesV

As usual I often post too soon. In this case Barrier hasn't been updated on GitHub since late 2021 (I think). They've forked it over to a new project "input-leap" which hasn't had a first build yet. The source code is there to compile. The main effort is getting it working on Wayland. There are two active devs from Barrier working on it. So leap-input is the spiritual and literal successor to Barrier.

That said I'm lucky to have gotten Barrier working on my 3 machines. I read lots of posts from people who haven't been so lucky. But I did have my struggles. Also disabled SSL per a YouTube video suggestion. There's an option to use SSL without a certificate. Had to open up the firewall on the Linux server host. It was added automatically on Windows. The MX RPi respin doesn't have a firewall by default.

In some ways NoMachine has advantages for me. There's no monitor input toggling. But I've had some erratic behavior with NoMachine from Linux to a Windows remote. I got a white screen on Linux even after disconnecting from the remote Windows end. Tried to kill some nx processes on Linux from the terminal and ended up rebooting to get the Linux desktop back. Otherwise I'd prefer NoMachine.

[CharlesV]

Interesting... well.. ok no Barrier then ;-p

I use NoMachine daily - as much as 20 times a day on a normal day, and I just dont have issues with it. I have 4 machines I am on minimal 3 times a day, ( 2 linux 2 windows) and then another 10 ish machines that I connect to - over VPN's (4++ linux and 6~13 windows)

Unless I have to jump into my big ScreenConnect (ConnectWise) system, NoMachine is a daily driver for me. I would be hard pressed to work as fast as I do with out it!

[FullScale4Me]

I've been using Barrier across 4 machines for a few years now. I got tired of multiple key/mice when I added the 3rd PC.

[Magister]

Old thread, but I'm also using barrier for years, it was not updated for almost 3 years. I tried deskflow but it's not mature enough. I just discovered that input-leap had issued binaries/packages, ready to install (I used debian 12 deb and windows exe), fully compatible with barrier, but to do it properly I changed my .config folder etc but config is the same. It works pretty well. It looks like between latest barrier v2.4.0 and this 3.0.2 input-leap, there's is ~800 changes/fix in the code.

Try it :)

https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/releases