200 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
200 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
Synergy Frequently Asked Questions
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==================================
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Questions
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1. Why doesn't ctrl+alt+del work on secondary screens?
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2. Can the server and client be using different operating systems?
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3. What's the difference between synergy and x2x, x2vnc, etc?
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4. What does "Cannot initialize hook library" mean?
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5. What security/encryption does synergy provide?
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6. What should I call my screens in the configuration?
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7. Why do my CapsLock and NumLock keys act funny?
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8. Can synergy share the display in addition to the mouse and keyboard?
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9. Can synergy do drag and drop between computers?
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10. Do AltGr or Mode-Switch or ISO_Level3_Shift work?
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11. Why isn't synergy ported to platform XYZ?
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12. My client can't connect. What's wrong?
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13. Linking fails on Solaris. What's wrong?
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14. The screen saver never starts. Why not?
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15. I can't switch screens anymore for no apparent reason. Why?
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16. I get the error 'Xlib: No protocol specified'. Why?
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17. The cursor goes to secondary screen but won't come back. Why?
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18. The cursor wraps from one edge of the screen to the opposite. Why?
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Answers
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1. Why doesn't ctrl+alt+del work on secondary screens?
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Synergy isn't able to capture ctrl+alt+del on PC compatible
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systems because it's handled completely differently than
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other keystrokes. However, when the mouse is on a client
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screen, pressing ctrl+alt+pause will simulate ctrl+alt+del
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on the client. (A client running on Windows NT, 2000, or XP
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must be running as a service for this to work.)
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2. Can the server and client be using different operating systems?
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Yes. The synergy network protocol is platform neutral so
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synergy doesn't care what operating systems are running on
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the server and clients.
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3. What's the difference between synergy and x2x, x2vnc, etc?
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Unlike x2x, synergy supports any number of computers and
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it doesn't require X on Microsoft Windows platforms. It
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also has more advanced clipboard support and synchronizes
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screensavers. x2vnc is also limited to two computers,
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requires the separate vnc package, and is really only
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appropriate for using an X system to control a non-X system.
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However, the right tool for the job is whatever tool works
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best for you.
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4. What does "Cannot initialize hook library" mean?
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This error can occur on a synergy server running on a
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Microsoft Windows operating system. It means that synergy
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is already running or possibly was not shut down properly.
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If it's running then first end the synergy task. If it's
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not then try logging off and back on or rebooting then
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starting synergy again.
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5. What security/encryption does synergy provide?
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Synergy provides no built-in encryption or authentication.
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Given that, synergy should not be used on or over any untrusted
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network, especially the Internet. It's generally fine for home
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networks. Future versions may provide built-in encryption and
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authentication.
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Strong encryption and authentication is available through SSH
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(secure shell). Run the SSH daemon (i.e. server) on the same
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computer that you run the synergy server. It requires no
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special configuration to support synergy. On each synergy
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client system, run SSH with port forwarding:
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ssh -f -N -L 24800:<server-hostname>:24800 <server-hostname>
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where <server-hostname> is the name of the SSH/synergy server.
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Once ssh authenticates itself, start the synergy client
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normally except use `localhost' or `127.0.0.1' as the server's
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address. SSH will then encrypt all communication on behalf of
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synergy. Authentication is handled by the SSH authentication.
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A free implementation of SSH for Linux and many Unix systems
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called OpenSSH is available from http://www.openssh.com/. For
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Windows there's a port of OpenSSH using Cygwin
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(http://www.cygwin.com/).
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6. What should I call my screens in the configuration?
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You can use any unique name in the configuration file for each
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screen but it's easiest to use the hostname of the computer.
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That's the computer name not including the domain. For example,
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a computer with the fully qualified domain name `xyz.foo.com' has
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the hostname `xyz'. There should also be an alias for `xyz' to
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`xyz.foo.com'. If you don't use the computer's hostname, you
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have to tell synergy the name of the screen using a command line
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option, or the startup dialog on Windows.
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7. Why do my CapsLock and NumLock keys act funny?
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Some systems treat the Caps-Lock and Num-Lock keys differently
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than all the others. Whereas most keys report going down when
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physically pressed and going up when physically released, on
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these systems the Caps-Lock and Num-Lock keys report going down
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when being activated and going up when being deactivated. That
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is, when you press and release, say, Caps-Lock to activate it, it
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only reports going down, and when you press and release to
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deactivate it, it only reports going up. This confuses synergy.
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You can solve the problem by changing your configuration file.
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In the screens section, following each screen that has the
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problem, add either or both of these lines as appropriate:
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halfDuplexCapsLock = true
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halfDuplexNumLock = true
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Then restart synergy on the server.
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8. Can synergy share the display in addition to the mouse and keyboard?
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No. Synergy is a KM solution not a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse)
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solution. However, future versions will probably support KVM.
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Hopefully, this will make synergy suitable for managing large
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numbers of headless servers.
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9. Can synergy do drag and drop between computers?
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No. That's a very cool idea and it'll be explored. However, it's
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also clearly difficult and may take a long time to implement.
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10. Does AltGr/Mode-Switch/ISO_Level3_Shift work?
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Yes, as of 1.0.12 synergy has full support for AltGr/Mode-switch.
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That includes support for most (all?) European keyboard layouts.
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All systems should be using the same keyboard layout, though, for
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all characters to work. (Any character missing from a client's
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layout cannot be generated by synergy.) There is experimental
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support for ISO_Level3_Shift in 1.1.3.
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11. Why isn't synergy ported to platform XYZ?
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Probably because the developers don't have access to platform XYZ
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and/or are unfamiliar with development on XYZ. Also, synergy has
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inherently non-portable aspects so there's a not insignificant
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effort involved in porting.
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12. My client can't connect. What's wrong?
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A common mistake when starting the client is to give the wrong
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server host name. The last synergyc command line option (Unix)
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or the "Server Host Name" edit field (Windows) should be the
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host name (or IP address) of the server *not* the client's host
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name. If you get the error "connection failed: cannot connect
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socket" followed by "the attempt to connect was forcefully
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rejected" or "connection refused" then the server isn't started,
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can't bind the address, or the client is connecting to the wrong
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host name/address or port.
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13. Linking fails on Solaris. What's wrong?
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Did you add `--x-includes=/usr/openwin/include
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--x-libraries=/usr/openwin/lib' (without the linebreak) to the
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`configure' command line? Solaris puts the X11 includes and
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libraries in an unusual place and the above lets synergy find
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them.
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14. The screen saver never starts. Why not?
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If the synergy server is on X Windows then the screen saver will
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not start while the mouse is on a client screen. This is a
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consequence of how X Windows, synergy and xscreensaver work.
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15. I can't switch screens anymore for no apparent reason. Why?
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This should not happen with 1.1.3 and up. Earlier versions of
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synergy would not allow switching screens when a key was down and
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sometimes it would believe a key was down when it was not.
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16. I get the error 'Xlib: No protocol specified'. Why?
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You're running synergy without authorization to connect to the
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X display. Typically the reason is running synergy as root when
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logged in as non-root. Just run synergy as the same user that's
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logged in.
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17. The cursor goes to secondary screen but won't come back. Why?
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Your configuration is incorrect. You must indicate the neighbors
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of every screen. Just because you've configured 'Apple' to be to
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the left of 'Orange' does not mean that 'Orange' is to the right
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of 'Apple'. You must provide both in the configuration.
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18. The cursor wraps from one edge of the screen to the opposite. Why?
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Because you told it to. If you list 'Orange' to be to the left of
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'Orange' then moving the mouse off the left edge of 'Orange' will
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make it jump to the right edge. Remove the offending line from the
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configuration if you don't want that behavior.
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