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<title>Synergy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
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<p></p>
<h3>Synergy Frequently Asked Questions</h3>
</p><p>
<h4>Questions</h4>
<ol>
<li><a href="#faq1">Why doesn't ctrl+alt+del work on secondary screens?</a>
<li><a href="#faq2">Can the server and client be using different operating systems?</a>
<li><a href="#faq3">What's the difference between synergy and x2x, x2vnc, etc?</a>
<li><a href="#faq4">What does "Cannot initialize hook library" mean?</a>
<li><a href="#faq5">What security/encryption does synergy provide?</a>
<li><a href="#faq6">What should I call my screens in the configuration?</a>
<li><a href="#faq7">Why do my Caps-Lock, Num-Lock, Scroll-Lock keys act funny?</a>
<li><a href="#faq8">Can synergy share the display in addition to the mouse and keyboard?</a>
<li><a href="#faq9">Can synergy do drag and drop between computers?</a>
<li><a href="#faq10">Do AltGr or Mode-Switch or ISO_Level3_Shift work?</a>
<li><a href="#faq11">Why isn't synergy ported to platform XYZ?</a>
<li><a href="#faq12">My client can't connect. What's wrong?</a>
<li><a href="#faq13">Linking fails on Solaris. What's wrong?</a>
<li><a href="#faq14">The screen saver never starts. Why not?</a>
<li><a href="#faq15">I can't switch screens anymore for no apparent reason. Why?</a>
<li><a href="#faq16">I get the error 'Xlib: No protocol specified'. Why?</a>
<li><a href="#faq17">The cursor goes to secondary screen but won't come back. Why?</a>
<li><a href="#faq18">The cursor wraps from one edge of the screen to the opposite. Why?</a>
<li><a href="#faq19">How do I stop my game from minimizing when I leave the screen?</a>
</ol>
<h4>Answers</h4>
<ol>
<li><a name="faq1"></a><span class="fakelink">Why doesn't ctrl+alt+del work on secondary screens?</span>
<p>
Synergy isn't able to capture ctrl+alt+del on PC compatible
primary screens because it's handled completely differently than
other keystrokes. However, when the mouse is on a client
screen, pressing ctrl+alt+pause will simulate ctrl+alt+del
on the client. (A client running on Windows NT, 2000, or XP
must be configured to autostart when the computer starts for
this to work.)
</p><p>
On a primary screen running on an OS X system, you can use
ctrl+command+del. Using the pause key isn't necessary since OS X
doesn't treat ctrl+command+del differently. And using the pause
key isn't usually possible because there isn't one on most OS X
systems. Use command instead of option/alt because
the command key, not the option/alt key, maps to alt on windows.
The reason is because the command key is in the same physical
location and performs the same general function (menu shortcuts)
as alt on a windows system. This mapping can be modified in
the configuration.
</p><p>
On mac laptops, the key labeled "delete" is actually backspace
and ctrl+command+delete won't work. However fn+delete really
is delete so fn+ctrl+command+delete will act as ctrl+alt+del
on a windows secondary screen.
</p>
<li><a name="faq2"></a><span class="fakelink">Can the server and client be using different operating systems?</span>
<p>
Yes. The synergy network protocol is platform neutral so
synergy doesn't care what operating systems are running on
the server and clients.
</p>
<li><a name="faq3"></a><span class="fakelink">What's the difference between synergy and
<span class="code">x2x</span>, <span class="code">x2vnc</span>, etc?</span>
<p>
Unlike <span class="code">x2x</span>, synergy supports any number of computers and
it doesn't require X on Microsoft Windows platforms. It
also has more advanced clipboard support and synchronizes
screensavers. <span class="code">x2vnc</span> is also limited to two computers,
requires the separate vnc package, and is really only
appropriate for using an X system to control a non-X system.
However, the right tool for the job is whatever tool works
best for you.
</p>
<li><a name="faq4"></a><span class="fakelink">What does "Cannot initialize hook library" mean?</span>
<p>
This error can occur on a synergy server running on a
Microsoft Windows operating system. It means that synergy
is already running or possibly was not shut down properly.
If it's running then first end the synergy task. If it's
not then try logging off and back on or rebooting then
starting synergy again.
</p>
<li><a name="faq5"></a><span class="fakelink">What security/encryption does synergy provide?</span>
<p>
Synergy provides no built-in encryption or authentication.
Given that, synergy should not be used on or over any untrusted
network, especially the Internet. It's generally fine for home
networks. Future versions may provide built-in encryption and
authentication.
</p><p>
Strong encryption and authentication is available through SSH
(secure shell). Run the SSH daemon (i.e. server) on the same
computer that you run the synergy server. It requires no
special configuration to support synergy. On each synergy
client system, run SSH with port forwarding:
</p><p>
<pre>
ssh -f -N -L 24800:<span class="arg">server-hostname</span>:24800 <span class="arg">server-hostname</span>
</pre>
</p><p>
where <span class="arg">server-hostname</span> is the name of the
SSH/synergy server.
Once ssh authenticates itself, start the synergy client
normally except use <span class="code">localhost</span> or
<span class="code">127.0.0.1</span> as the server's
address. SSH will then encrypt all communication on behalf of
synergy. Authentication is handled by the SSH authentication.
</p><p>
A free implementation of SSH for Linux and many Unix systems is
<a target="_top" href="http://www.openssh.com/">OpenSSH</a>. For
Windows there's a port of OpenSSH using
<a target="_top" href="http://www.cygwin.com/">Cygwin<a>.
</p>
<li><a name="faq6"></a><span class="fakelink">What should I call my screens in the configuration?</span>
<p>
You can use any unique name in the configuration file for each
screen but it's easiest to use the hostname of the computer.
That's the computer name not including the domain. For example,
a computer with the fully qualified domain name <span class="code">xyz.foo.com</span> has
the hostname <span class="code">xyz</span>. There should also be an alias for <span class="code">xyz</span> to
<span class="code">xyz.foo.com</span>. If you don't use the computer's hostname, you
have to tell synergy the name of the screen using a command line
option, or the startup dialog on Windows.
</p><p>
Some systems are configured to report the fully qualified domain
name as the hostname. For those systems it will be easier to use
the FQDN as the screen name. Also note that a Mac OS X system
named <span class="code">xyz</span> may report its hostname as
<span class="code">xyz.local</span>. If that's the case for you
then use <span class="code">xyz.local</span> as the screen name.
</p>
<li><a name="faq7"></a><span class="fakelink">Why do my Caps-Lock, Num-Lock, Scroll-Lock keys act funny?</span>
<p>
Some systems treat the Caps-Lock, Num-Lock, and Scroll-Lock keys
differently than all the others. Whereas most keys report going down
when physically pressed and going up when physically released, on
these systems the Caps-Lock and Num-Lock keys report going down
when being activated and going up when being deactivated. That
is, when you press and release, say, Caps-Lock to activate it, it
only reports going down, and when you press and release to
deactivate it, it only reports going up. This confuses synergy.
</p><p>
You can solve the problem by changing your configuration file.
In the screens section, following each screen that has the
problem, any or all of these lines as appropriate:
</p><p>
<pre>
halfDuplexCapsLock = true
halfDuplexNumLock = true
halfDuplexScrollLock = true
</pre>
</p><p>
Then restart synergy on the server or reload the configuration.
</p>
<li><a name="faq8"></a><span class="fakelink">Can synergy share the display in addition to the mouse and keyboard?</span>
<p>
No. Synergy is a KM solution not a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse)
solution. However, future versions will probably support KVM.
Hopefully, this will make synergy suitable for managing large
numbers of headless servers.
</p>
<li><a name="faq9"></a><span class="fakelink">Can synergy do drag and drop between computers?</span>
<p>
No. That's a very cool idea and it'll be explored. However, it's
also clearly difficult and may take a long time to implement.
</p>
<li><a name="faq10"></a><span class="fakelink">Does AltGr/Mode-Switch/ISO_Level3_Shift work?</span>
<p>
Yes, as of 1.0.12 synergy has full support for AltGr/Mode-switch.
That includes support for most (all?) European keyboard layouts.
All systems should be using the same keyboard layout, though, for
all characters to work. (Any character missing from a client's
layout cannot be generated by synergy.) There is experimental
support for ISO_Level3_Shift in 1.1.3.
</p>
<li><a name="faq11"></a><span class="fakelink">Why isn't synergy ported to platform XYZ?</span>
<p>
Probably because the developers don't have access to platform XYZ
and/or are unfamiliar with development on XYZ. Also, synergy has
inherently non-portable aspects so there's a not insignificant
effort involved in porting.
</p>
<li><a name="faq12"></a><span class="fakelink">My client can't connect. What's wrong?</span>
<p>
A common mistake when starting the client is to give the wrong
server host name. The last synergyc command line option (Unix)
or the "Server Host Name" edit field (Windows) should be the
host name (or IP address) of the server <b>not</b> the client's host
name. If you get the error <span class="code">connection failed: cannot connect
socket</span> followed by <span class="code">the attempt to connect was forcefully
rejected</span> or <span class="code">connection refused</span> then the server isn't started,
can't bind the address, or the client is connecting to the wrong
host name/address or port. See the
<a href="trouble.html">troublshooting</a> page for more help.
</p>
<li><a name="faq13"></a><span class="fakelink">Linking fails on Solaris. What's wrong?</span>
<p>
Did you add
</p><p>
<pre>
<nobr>--x-includes=/usr/openwin/include --x-libraries=/usr/openwin/lib</nobr>
</pre>
</p><p>
to the <span class="code">configure</span> command line? Solaris puts
the X11 includes and libraries in an unusual place and the above lets
synergy find them.
</p>
<li><a name="faq14"></a><span class="fakelink">The screen saver never starts. Why not?</span>
<p>
If the synergy server is on X Windows then the screen saver will
not start while the mouse is on a client screen. This is a
consequence of how X Windows, synergy and xscreensaver work.
</p>
<li><a name="faq15"></a><span class="fakelink">I can't switch screens anymore for no apparent reason. Why?</span>
<p>
This should not happen with 1.1.3 and up. Earlier versions of
synergy would not allow switching screens when a key was down and
sometimes it would believe a key was down when it was not.
</p>
<li><a name="faq16"></a><span class="fakelink">I get the error 'Xlib: No protocol specified'. Why?</span>
<p>
You're running synergy without authorization to connect to the
X display. Typically the reason is running synergy as root when
logged in as non-root. Just run synergy as the same user that's
logged in.
</p>
<li><a name="faq17"></a><span class="fakelink">The cursor goes to secondary screen but won't come back. Why?</span>
<p>
Your configuration is incorrect. You must indicate the neighbors
of every screen. Just because you've configured 'Apple' to be to
the left of 'Orange' does not mean that 'Orange' is to the right
of 'Apple'. You must provide both in the configuration.
</p>
<li><a name="faq18"></a><span class="fakelink">The cursor wraps from one edge of the screen to the opposite. Why?</span>
<p>
Because you told it to. If you list 'Orange' to be to the left of
'Orange' then moving the mouse off the left edge of 'Orange' will
make it jump to the right edge. Remove the offending line from the
configuration if you don't want that behavior.
</p>
<li><a name="faq19"></a><span class="fakelink">How do I stop my game from minimizing when I leave the screen?</span>
<p>
Many full screen applications, particularly games, automatically
minimize when they're no longer the active (foreground) application
on Microsoft Windows. The synergy server normally becomes the foreground
when you switch to another screen in order to more reliably capture all
user input causing those full screen applications to minimize. To
prevent synergy from stealing the foreground just click "Options..."
and check "Don't take foreground window on Windows servers." If you
turn this on then be aware that synergy may not function correctly when
certain programs, particularly the command prompt, are the foreground
when you switch to other screens. Simply make a different program the
foreground before switching to work around that.
</p>
</ol>
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