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DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

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Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#191

Post by jtriangle »

bonki wrote: post #72
sixothree wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a saying “nothing sucks like synergy but they all do”. Not a single one of these technologies is reliable. But synergy is the one that has multiple times made even the connected keyboard stop working to the point where the machine needs to be power cycled to become responsive.

Thing is, I used the old OSS Synergy some 15-20 years ago, across Linux, Windows and I believe OSX as well (although I am not 100% certain about the latter). It worked absolutely flawlessly for several years while I used it and I loved it dearly. Fast forward (I had no need for a software kvm until last year) and I use Barrier now and it barely works. Autostart on Windows doesn't work at all, the installer failed to…

Turn off clipboard sharing, use a config file, and barrier works well on most systems.

Way too much BS to get it running though.

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#192

Post by LoganDark »

layer8 wrote: post #69
LoganDark wrote: post #9

Level1Techs does the same thing for DisplayPort if you want fast monitor switching. Just be prepared for the price: https://www.store.level1techs.com/products/p/14-kvm-switch-d...

This doesn’t seem to do the mouse position-triggered switching?

I'm referring to the fact that it maintains an independent connection to each monitor in order to facilitate fast switching. Almost no other DP switches do this.

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#194

Post by gigel82 »

I use Barrier[1] and even with full software integration it sometimes gets things wrong (especially if you have a game or something else doing mouse capture); I'd be surprised if this can be solved entirely in hardware, but it sure looks amazing.

https://github.com/debauchee/barrier

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#195

Post by jlundberg »

rkangel wrote: post #51
mariopt wrote: post #6

I bought 4 USB hubs just to switch the keyboard and mouse, it's just so annoying how most devices are so terrible. Randomly you have to physically detach the hub several times a day. If you plug webcams and/or USB mics, it only gets even worse. I'm using Synergy software and it works well, but I still want a proper KVM that can allow for webcams, mics, audio, etc. Features like moving only a group of plugged devices…

The best setup I've found is what I lucked into at work. It's a Benq monitor (32", 4k) that does the KVM itself. There's a couple of Displayport inputs, each if which has a couple of USBs with it, as well as a USB C which is both peripheral and display input (and decent power output). Then there's a little pick on the desk for switching. The nice thing is that it continually presents a monitor to all the inputs even…

Which benq model is this?

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#196

Post by fnordpiglet »

sheepscreek wrote: post #122

I’ve been using a software solution for this for over a decade. It’s called Synergy ( https://symless.com/synergy ) and it is fast - switches instantly over wifi and also works across Windows/Mac/Linux.

Looks awesome, but sad they put TLS as a premium feature above the basic for pay sku. Security should be default in everything and for free. It’s not a luxury, it’s a table stakes bare minimum thing. (That said I’ll try it out and if it’s good I’ll license the premium sku for the copy and paste feature)

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#197

Post by rkangel »

jlundberg wrote: post #195
rkangel wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best setup I've found is what I lucked into at work. It's a Benq monitor (32", 4k) that does the KVM itself. There's a couple of Displayport inputs, each if which has a couple of USBs with it, as well as a USB C which is both peripheral and display input (and decent power output). Then there's a little pick on the desk for switching. The nice thing is that it continually presents a monitor to all the inputs even…

Which benq model is this?

Looks like it's the PD3205U (https://www.amazon.co.uk/BenQ-PD3205U-Designer-Technology-Co...). Am not at work to double check.

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#198

Post by adra »

mariopt wrote: post #6

I bought 4 USB hubs just to switch the keyboard and mouse, it's just so annoying how most devices are so terrible. Randomly you have to physically detach the hub several times a day. If you plug webcams and/or USB mics, it only gets even worse. I'm using Synergy software and it works well, but I still want a proper KVM that can allow for webcams, mics, audio, etc. Features like moving only a group of plugged devices…

I've been very happy with my tesmart dual DP 4 port KVM. The only limitation I have is that it's only usb 2 host controller, so a lot of higher speed devices like some webcams can't get switched using it.

LAlso if you need Apple products in the mix, you have to use two physical usb3 cables from the mac just to distinguish the two display channels because apple hates MST for reasons (another reason to hate their arbitrary bs).

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#199

Post by aschla »

I recently put something together similar to this, to switch between my personal PopOS/Windows machine and my work Macbook Pro.

I used one of these manual USB switchers, (https://sabrent.com/products/usb-sw30), and connected its switch to a Raspberry Pi 4B via GPIO (4B is overkill by wanted hardwired network). There's a small separate keyboard (which will later be a macro keypad of some sort), connected to the Pi. Using inputexec (https://github.com/rbarrois/inputexec) to detect keypresses and then firing off a specific script to send a network request to the LG TV I use as a monitor to switch the source, and then set the GPIO connected to the USB switcher to high or low to switch the keyboard/mouse to the other machine.

I can also turn on/off the TV using the same WebOS API (and Wake-on-lan) as used during the source switch. A Kasa smart outlet also gets toggled to turn on/off a BenQ ScreenBar Halo (https://www.benq.com/en-us/lighting/monitor-light.html).

So with 4 different keypresses, I can switch to Work, to Personal, turn off monitor and light, and turn on monitor and light.

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#200

Post by doctorhandshake »

>> NOTE: Both computers need to be connected and powered on for this to work (as each board gets powered by the computer it plugs into).

It's not clear to me what would happen in the event that only one of the two computers was powered up. Would the powered pico pass the mouse off to a dead pico at the screen edge and then have no twin to pass it back, leaving the powered machine with no USB devices?

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