Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 123 posts

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#51

Post by shabble »

Jaruzel wrote: post #46
uoaei wrote: post #42

Any tool that switches screens, too? Essentially one terminal for n computers, with a hardware or software switch between them?

That would be a KVM. (not the Virtualisation software, but a dedicated Keyboard, Video, Mouse switcher). Good ones can be as expensive as ~£200.

Can be a lot more than that!

I was looking recently and came across https://www.aten.com/gb/en/products/kvm/desktop-kvm-switches... (and similar in the range)

Switching multiple monitors simultaneously seems to take you into a whole new bracket I tend to associate with the 15-monitor fintech/daytrader market, with pricepoints to suit :(

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#52

Post by artificialLimbs »

torton wrote: post #38

I tried using Barrier in a fairly complex setup (Linux, Windows, Mac with all of them being sometimes unavailable). Found some annoying UX issues (Windows privileged/login screen kicks the mouse back into the original position on a different monitor) and more importantly the Linux machine would wedge itself with 100% CPU used by Barrier. This is a nice tool but not yet production ready.

Interesting. I used it on Mac/win/Linux trio and it worked great except copy paste and when the machines went to sleep, it would have to manually be restarted.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#53

Post by avidiax »

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.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#54

Post by wlesieutre »

jasonjayr wrote: post #24
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?

Isn't barrier a fork of the original synergy2 as well? That went closed-source/commercial ?

Forked from synergy 1.9

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#56

Post by zackmorris »

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 also if there are any low-cost or open source KVMs available.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#57

Post by rambambram »

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 "…

Have been using hardware KVM switches (HDMI/USB) from Belkin and some unknown brands from AliExpress since years. I don't remember the price exactly, but it was way under $100. I even contacted the Chinese manufacturer to change the PCB for me (I wanted the ports repositioned) and they did a very good and quick job for under $300. I'm talking dual computers in this case, not more.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#58

Post by thebeardisred »

checker659 wrote: post #50

Just an FYI for mac users: Universal Control is a native macOS alternative to barrier that's about to debut with macOS 12.3 (currently in beta). As an ex-synergy user, let me just say how awesome the implementation is. What's crazy is you can share your mouse and keyboard not only between two or more macs but also between your mac and an iPad (if you have one, obviously). And the latency is crazy unnoticably low (eve…

I'm assuming though this will be macOS only?

I ask because the best use I had for Synergy was around 20 years ago: one Linux desktop (my daily driver) and other ones for non Linux applications (or ones I didn't want to pollute my system with).

Over the years I've used it for Outlook (connecting to Exchange), Lotus Notes, Xcode, Adobe tools, etc.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#59

Post by robocat »

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.

I recall some touchscreens use USB internally for the touch interface. A touchscreen has absolute coordinates, which does the trick, compared with the usual mouse/trackpad interfaces.

I remember remote controlling an OS that needed me to install absolute touchscreen drivers to work best (probably a VM, but maybe Synergy drivers??)

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#60

Post by gigel82 »

torton wrote: post #38

I tried using Barrier in a fairly complex setup (Linux, Windows, Mac with all of them being sometimes unavailable). Found some annoying UX issues (Windows privileged/login screen kicks the mouse back into the original position on a different monitor) and more importantly the Linux machine would wedge itself with 100% CPU used by Barrier. This is a nice tool but not yet production ready.

Had the same issue for a while, then moved the "server" to the Windows machine and it now works as expected (with the latest build at least).
Post reply on HN