TL;DR: Want to use my desktop keyboard/mouse with my Laptop. What software are you using/enjoying? Arch+KDE w/ Wayland will be the main host, main client is Windows 11. Secondary hosts may be Debian and MacOS, same client, but low priority on the Mac.
Hey folks, I’m rearranging some things a bit at home, would love to get some current thoughts on keyboard/mouse sharing over IP (no video).
I have to put up with some tools that don’t play nicely with wine/proton, and so my work laptop is a windows device. I’ll be controlling that device primary from Arch and Debian, though MacOS is a possibility. I’d like to keep the laptop closed and not add another mouse/keyboard into the mix, so Keyb/Mouse over IP it is.
Here’s what I’m looking at, haven’t tried them all yet, but looking for opinions:
- Barrier - Dead fork. Hasn’t been updated in some time, being superseded by input-leap. Most portions of the project managed by someone who had not been active for a couple years before the Input Leap fork.
- Input Leap - Forked from Barrier at the end of 2021, and nearly 3 years later, no stable binary releases yet. Development seems fairly active, but no binary releases yet doesn’t provide a massive amount of confidence that it will be stable. Doesn’t mean I won’t build and test though.
- Lan Mouse - Seems pretty neat, the lack of input capture on MacOS could create an issue for me in certain situations, but I can work around that if I need to for the rare times I’d need it. Traffic is unencrypted/plaintext. Its entirely local, and I’ve got more security than most users (and some companies), but still. Probably leading the pack right now.
- Deskflow - Upstream project for Synergy, a rename to differentiate the user project from Synergy. TONS of recent activity, but the switch is very recent. I don’t know if there are any binaries built, but its a longstanding project (and like many, many others, I used Synergy before it went commercial, it was nice).
Any other options out there? Good/bad experiences with any of these?
Synergy has always been my go-to for a software KVM. It’s currently only $30, and it works great. I paid for a license probably a decade ago, and I’ve more than recouped my utility cost.
Fair point, and I’m not entirely against commercial software. Probably easier to deploy to my work laptop too.
Synergy will be on the list
EDIT: May have spoken too soon. No wayland support still it looks like. From what I can see its been on the list since around 9 months ago, was 6 weeks away 5 months ago, but as of today still not available. I’ll give it a go just to check, but I don’t think libei support will be in until 3.2. Current version up is 3.0.
Edit 2: Usable code is out, so screw it, going to rework the home setup. Worst case scenario I’ll keep a spare mouse and keyboard handy for the laptop. Going to start testing out the others in earnest in the meantime once I’ve reworked my desk (and figured out where the hell I’m putting a 50" monitor that’s apparently arriving next week for testing).
