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Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

github.com

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Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#71

Post by dividedbyzero »

parentheses wrote: post #67
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…

IMO KVM Switches with display support are luxury items. Who has 2 computers? People who can afford them.

I didn't pay for my second computer, work did.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#72

Post by ridgered4 »

superkuh wrote: post #32
0des wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only just recently heard about the synergy -> barrier transition and got everything dialed in on barrier... sigh . The aristocrats!

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.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#73

Post by ridgered4 »

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…

There are/were standalone off the shelf USB devices that sort of did this, minute the network part which I had some interest in. I own an old one, but since my main machine is linux it's lack of linux drivers made it of dubious usefulness to me. I could control a linux machine with it, but the software that captures keystrokes/mouse and then sends them off through a simulated keyboard/mouse only had Windows/Mac versions.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#74

Post by ridgered4 »

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…

It's pretty hard to beat a monitor with multiple inputs combined with a cheap USB switch when it comes to price and reliability.

If you look up the prices of stand alone hdmi switches on amazon though I think the most likely explanation is these are now niche products so the price has gone up. Logically a decent vga USB KVM + an HDMI switch shouldn't require more cost than those two devices prices together.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#75

Post by scruple »

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.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#76

Post by maicro »

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…

https://pikvm.org might be relevant; the BBB and Pi are pretty comparable for most purposes, so wouldn't be surprised if that code/configured would work with only minimal tweaks on your BBB.

Re: Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers

#79

Post by 1MachineElf »

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…

I would love more projects like this, especially ones that utilize the BBB.

Personally I've had the same need (shared keyboard and mouse) and same requirement (work policy preventing additional software) for many years now so have resorted to using a KM switch (no V) bought off eBay.

If you look up "KM switch", the first thing you'll notice is that most search engines will automatically assume you meant "KVM switch" instead. This is what I believe contributes to the highly niche market and niche prices for KM switches. Anything under $100 is rare, hence used ones on eBay being the better option.

It should be possible to have a series of Atmel 32u4 microcontrollers acting as a keyboard/mouse devices controlled by a single host device over I2C. The problem is that people with the skills and people with the motivation haven't overlapped in a significant way.

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