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Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

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Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#111

Post by ugl »

scruple wrote: post #75
durazabu wrote: post #15

Barrier has been forked to https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap which has a hundred more commits by the same devs. The name is still barrier though, has anyone more info about this fork?

Interesting. I'm a long time Synergy user and recently tried Barrier and it simply didn't work. I'm going from a Linux server (personal) to a MacOS client (work equipment). Synergy has been mostly fine but I have had small problems that I was hoping Barrier would clear it up. Thanks for linking this project, I wouldn't have seen it otherwise. Will be giving this a try this afternoon.

I found disabling encryption worked for me.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#112

Post by rcarmo »

0xCMP wrote: post #19
durazabu wrote: post #15

Barrier has been forked to https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap which has a hundred more commits by the same devs. The name is still barrier though, has anyone more info about this fork?

They have an issue where they explain that they have disagreements with how barrier is run and the current owner does not want to pass control to them. They are the most active recent contributors. personally I am waiting for them to cut a stable release and then try it out. https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/issues/1414

Oh boy. I hope they’re not planning to make money off it or start adding a crypto wallet…

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#113

Post by Beached »

I use barrier daily between my two laptops it take everywhere. it's great, except I have two issues. you can it copy /paste images between the two. and you cannot select which monitor the mouse moves off of.

I find myself wanting to copy screenshots between the two constantly, and if you have two monitors stacked vertically, I can pick the bottom monitor to be the edge monitor to go to my other computer.

I wish barrier devs were more active devs but it still works great

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#114

Post by grepfru_it »

djrogers wrote: post #62
superkuh wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barrier and input-leap are nice and all, but they're written for only modern OSes using modern library versions and language features. If you want to share a mouse with an OS older than a decade or so you'll still have to use the original Synergy 1.x. It works on both old machines/OSes (all the way back to the 90s) and on the very newest released OSes. Given that, I don't really see a need for barrier or input leap.…

> if you have an abnormally high DPI screen in your span. Like any MacBook Pro post 2015?

Synergy is not a problem on any of my highdpi systems, MacBook, 4k in Linux And windows

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#115

Post by grepfru_it »

tentacleuno wrote: post #2

I use this on my laptop and desktop when I bring my laptop into my office. It's totally seamless. You tell Barrier where the laptop "is" (relative to your monitor array -- just like setting up a secondary monitor) and then when you scroll your mouse onto your laptop everything is totally seamless. Your mouse and keyboard are then used solely for the laptop until you move the mouse back onto one of your desktop monito…

Nothing described here is different from synergy.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#116

Post by grepfru_it »

zanecodes wrote: post #39

I can't install Barrier on my work laptop for policy reasons, but I don't want to buy a KVM, so a project I've been interested in building when I have time is porting enough of the Barrier/Synergy protocol to the Particle Photon [1] or BeagleBone Black [2] I've had lying around for a while, and then configuring it to emulate a keyboard and mouse via its USB gadget driver, allowing it to control my work laptop over US…

They provide a version of some other keyboard and mouse sharing software that was approved. Then you can run that on the one work laptop with that problem while still using barrier, input director, synergy, etc on your other work computer

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#117

Post by Lascaille »

ridgered4 wrote: post #72
superkuh wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barrier and input-leap are nice and all, but they're written for only modern OSes using modern library versions and language features. If you want to share a mouse with an OS older than a decade or so you'll still have to use the original Synergy 1.x. It works on both old machines/OSes (all the way back to the 90s) and on the very newest released OSes. Given that, I don't really see a need for barrier or input leap.…

I had a plan to run older period VMs or even period hardware to play older PC games, and use something like parsec to view them. Unfortunately, despite there being a number of desktop streaming solutions available I couldn't find any that supported even WindowsXP, much less 9x. Windows 7 was about the best I could do.

Not 100% sure this fits your use case but UltraVNC goes back to w95.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#118

Post by mwexler »

taffit wrote: post #40
mwexler wrote: post #9

This still requires a dedicated monitor connection to each box with a hardware or source switch, right? Or a screen per device? That is, the KVM (in the VGA days) used to switch the mouse, keyboard, and video source so a single monitor, keyboard, and mouse switches across devices. But barrier doesn't try to solve that part, I think. Modern HDMI KVM hardware switches seem rather expensive; anyone found a good way to "…

Some more modern monitors can also be switched by software. I personally use a laptop with an external monitor that is also connected to my desktop. Whenever I need to switch from laptop to desktop (using Barrier or Mouse without Borders on Windows) I then invoke the magic of ControlMyMonitor by the wonderful NirSoft [1] using an Autohotkey-shortcut. This way I can share my monitor with the desktop and laptop. Sharin…

Control my monitor is a great find. NirSoft is just full of treasures.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#119

Post by yencabulator »

avidiax wrote: post #53
zanecodes wrote: post #39

I can't install Barrier on my work laptop for policy reasons, but I don't want to buy a KVM, so a project I've been interested in building when I have time is porting enough of the Barrier/Synergy protocol to the Particle Photon [1] or BeagleBone Black [2] I've had lying around for a while, and then configuring it to emulate a keyboard and mouse via its USB gadget driver, allowing it to control my work laptop over US…

The annoying/challenging part is that you need to drive the 2nd machine using relative motions, but place the cursor accurately and keep track of it. If the 2nd OS skips frames or has acceleration, you are pretty quickly implementing a Kalman filter.

Just about every virtual machine runner works around this by emulating a USB tablet (touchpad) and not a USB mouse. Should be simple to do same via USB gadget driver.

https://qemu-stsquad.readthedocs.io/en/doc-updates/system/us...

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#120

Post by antifa »

zackmorris wrote: post #56

Barrier looks great, but does anyone know why KVM switches with DisplayPort or HDMI are so outrageously expensive? It should just be a switch, no complex electronics, so I truly can't figure out why any KVM should cost more than say $30-50 US. I suspect DRM or patents for rent seekers are involved somehow. Or maybe they're playing on the naivety of the business community towards this stuff. I'd sure like to know, and…

I'd love a USB-only KVM style product, unfortunately newegg has decided to infringe on amazon's patent for "user must wade through endless ocean of unrelated garbage if sorting by lowest price".

Logitech has a keyboard that perfectly connects to 3 devices (unifying and/or BT) but they don't have a mouse that follows the keyboard and their mouse oriented work-arounds for that are garbage.

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