Share input devices between computers with Barrier
Remote Control via Network
Repeat the installation and configuration process on the client machine. In the last step, however, you need to specify that you want Barrier to run as a client (the operating mode can also be changed in the program by selecting the corresponding switch, if required). On Windows, the setup offers to install Bonjour, the equivalent to Avahi on Linux. You need to let the client and server find each other automatically.
Click Start to initiate the connection; then accept the SSL fingerprint for the first setup. You should now be able to move the mouse pointer from one desktop to the other – like in a dual monitor setup, but with two different computers. Keyboard input is always sent to the computer where the mouse pointer currently resides. In our lab, copying and pasting texts between Linux systems worked without any problems, as did copying between a Linux server and a Windows client.
Conclusions
Barrier does its job very well: Once you set it up, you can seamlessly switch back and forth between desktop computers, no matter what operating system you use on the devices. The Linux install was a bit clumsy. In the future, the Barrier developers hope to offer DEB and RPM packages for the most popular distributions.
Infos
- Synergy: https://symless.com/synergy
- Barrier: https://github.com/debauchee/barrier
- Synergy core: https://github.com/symless/synergy-core
- Static builds: https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/wiki
- Support for Wayland: https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/issues/109
- Flatpak releases: https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/releases
- "Building on Linux": https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/wiki/Building-on-Linux
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