Get Back To Synergy, You Fool!

One of those things, you know... You stop one day, and then you don't use it for a while...
And then, you forget completely about it...
A senior moment, no doubt about it...
Anyways, I'm back onto Synergy, big time.
Here is the synergy.conf file from Colossus, as I'm using Synergy at least right now, with Krull & Colossus, as usual, tunnelling the whole thing thru SSH...


## /etc/synergy.conf

section: screens
        colossus:
                switchCorners = none
                switchCornerSize = 0
        krull:
                switchCorners = none
                switchCornerSize = 0
end

section: aliases
        krull:
                10.120.10.3
end

section: links
        colossus:
                left = krull
        krull:
                right = colossus
end

section: options
        switchDelay                             = 500
        screenSaverSync                         = false
        keystroke(shift+control+left)           = switchToScreen(krull)
        keystroke(shift+control+right)          = switchToScreen(colossus)
end

Synergy (once again)

Installed it on Tango, and setup Thor to be the server.
No problems at all, even thru the SSH tunnel (using the WiFi card on Tango), things are pretty slick and trouble free.

The config file for the server:

section: screens
        thor.local:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0

        tango:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0
end

section: links
        thor.local:
                left = tango
        tango:
                right = thor.local
end

section: options
        screenSaverSync = true
        switchDelay             = 500
        keystroke(shift+control+left)   = switchToScreen(tango)
        keystroke(shift+control+right)  = switchToScreen(thor.local)
end
# EoF #

And on the client, to connect and use Synergy thru an SSH tunnel, I'm using this:

ssh -R 24800:thor:24800 tango

After that, once connected, issue a:

synergyc -f localhost

Power Shift (once again)

Or, a new Synergy setup.
Actually, it is basically the same as before, but now the server is Tango, and the client is Thor.
There is not much to report really, everything seems to be working exactly the same on both boxes, even tho the roles have changed.

This is the config file (I case I blew it again):

## -----------------------------------------------
## synergy.conf from tango
## -----------------------------------------------

section: screens
        thor.arenales.lan:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0

        tango:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0
end

section: links
        thor.arenales.lan:
                left = tango

        tango:
                right = thor.arenales.lan
end

section: options
        screenSaverSync                        = true
        switchDelay                            = 500
        keystroke(shift+control+right)         = switchToScreen(thor.arenales.lan)
        keystroke(shift+control+left)          = switchToScreen(tango)
end
# EoF #

The current setup

Haven't post a picture of the family on a while, so here they are... And they are together, once again, thanks to Synergy.

Evolution crash (2)

I "think" I found out why of the crash...

It seems rather strange, or far fetched, but, I guess its because I'm pasting text onto Evolution thru Synergy, coming from Thor...

I mean, I haven't had a crash since the day I posted that one, and I was using Synergy, and doing the same thing.

One thing that I can test is, now that I can switch things around, and use Tango as the Synergy server (I use Synergy tunneled thru SSH, no matter what), see if the crash happens on Evolution that way too (perhaps this time it will happen on iCal :P ).

Synergy from Os X to Ubuntu

Installed Synergy on Tango today, it doesn't look to be any problem, still using Thor as the server, and Tango (now with Ubuntu!) as the client.

The only problem seems to be with the mouse wheel scrolling on the client side, Linux, it is working rather sporadicly, to say the least.

Synergy drops

One thing I have noticed running Synergy with the server on Os X, and the client on Vista, is that if unplug the AC on the Vista side, and start to use on batteries, it starts to drop the connection, pretty, pretty often.
It doesn't matter how much battery left it has, the drops begins as soon as I unplug the AC.

I'm not sure, but I doubt that this is a Windows problem, I mean, the Compaq's WiFi NIC does work pretty well, with a very good signal strength all around, pretty much all the time.

Synergy, loving every keyboard combo

Being kinda busy lately... Lost of work
Kept playing a lot with Synergy lately, tweaking & trying to find the exact configuration to work confortable between Thor and Tango.

For the moment, I have left Orbis Tertius, my new Ubuntu Queen, out of the setup, haven't used it much these last few days. So. I have configured the Synergy server to be with just one client, and another few options, by far the most useful one is the screen switching via keyboard combo.

Here is the current configuration:

## -----------------------------------------------
## synergy.conf from thor.arenales.lan
## -----------------------------------------------

section: screens
        thor.arenales.lan:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0

        tango:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0

end

section: links
        thor.arenales.lan:
                left = tango

        tango:
                right  = thor.arenales.lan

end

section: options
        screenSaverSync                         = true
        switchDelay                             = 500
        keystroke(shift+control+left)           = switchToScreen(tango)
        keystroke(shift+control+right)          = switchToScreen(thor.arenales.lan)
end
# EoF #

Synergy go-around (2)

I found an interesting bit with Synergy, using this configuration I have for three boxes, you can actually circle the whole setup, ok.

But, they thing I found out last night, while I was unplugging, and turning off some of the boxes, that, once all the clients are off, if the server is still active, when the mouse hits the right side of the screen on the server's monitor, it would jump to the left, and vice versa.

Strange, one would think, or assume, that since all of the clients are off, it will give and error when you try to access them, but, it transparently ignores the unavailable clients.

Firewalling Tiger (V)

With the rules to access the SNMP server on Tiger.


#!/bin/sh
# To list the current rules
# sudo /sbin/ipfw list

## The startup of this script is controlled by the files on:
## /Library/StartupItems/Firewall/

# Variables to simplify maintenance

ipf="/sbin/ipfw"

# LAN Arenales
LAN="10.120.10.0/29"

# Judith
judith="10.120.10.2"

# You can add more servers, these are comma delimited
DNS_SERVERS="10.120.10.0/29"
NTPD_SERVERS="10.120.10.2, clock.via.net, 0.south-america.pool.ntp.org"

# Enable firewall logging
#/usr/sbin/sysctl -w net.inet.ip.fw.verbose=1
# Disable firewall logging
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w net.inet.ip.fw.verbose=0

# Flush existing rules
${ipf} -f flush

# If the rule was added to the dynamic rule table, let it in
${ipf} add check-state

# Allow traffic to flow on the loopback interface
${ipf} add allow all from any to any via lo0

# Allow established connections
${ipf} add allow tcp from any to any established


## ------------------------------------
## Incoming connections
## ------------------------------------

# Allow ICMP traffic
${ipf} add allow icmp from ${LAN} to me icmptype 0,8

# Allow SSH connections
${ipf} add allow tcp from ${LAN} to me 22 keep-state

# Allow DHCP
${ipf} add allow udp from ${LAN} 67-68 to me 67-68

# Allow snmp
${ipf} add allow udp from ${judith} to me 161-162

# Allow Synergy connections
${ipf} add allow tcp from ${LAN} to me 24800 keep-state


## ------------------------------------
## Outgoing connections
## ------------------------------------

# Allow SSH connections
${ipf} add allow tcp from me to any 22 keep-state

# Allow non-secure web traffic
${ipf} add allow tcp from me to any 80 keep-state

# Allow ntpd traffic
${ipf} add allow tcp from me to ${NTPD_SERVERS} 123 keep-state
${ipf} add allow udp from me to ${NTPD_SERVERS} 123 keep-state

# Allowed so SNMPD connections can return to Judith
${ipf} add allow udp from me to ${judith}

# Allow secure web traffic
${ipf} add allow tcp from me to any 443 keep-state

# Allow IMAPS
${ipf} add allow tcp from me to any 993 keep-state

# Allow Messenger
${ipf} add allow tcp from me to any 1863 keep-state

# Allow RDP traffic
${ipf} add allow tcp from me to any 3389 keep-state

# Allow HTTP alternative access
${ipf} add allow tcp from me to any 8080 keep-state

# Allow Webmin
${ipf} add allow tcp from me to any 10000 keep-state

# Allow Synergy connections to the server on Tango
${ipf} add allow tcp from me to ${LAN} 24800 keep-state

# Allow me to get to my DNS servers
${ipf} add allow udp from me to ${DNS_SERVERS} 53 keep-state

# Allow ICMP traffic out
${ipf} add allow icmp from me to any out keep-state

## ------------------------------------
## Close down

${ipf} add deny log ip from any to any

# EoF #

Synergy go-around

Since the family is getting bigger, Synergy has to change its configuration too.

Here is a copy of Thor's actual Synergy (server) configuration file, the important bit (if I can call it that way :p ) is that since there are three screens now, I can do a full circle either way from one screen to the other, pretty handy to get there fast!

## -----------------------------------------------
## synergy.conf from thor.arenales.lan
## -----------------------------------------------

section: screens
        thor.arenales.lan:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0

        tango:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0

        orbis-tertius:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0

end

section: links
        thor.arenales.lan:
                left = tango
                right = orbis-tertius

        tango:
                right  = thor.arenales.lan
                left   = orbis-tertius

        orbis-tertius:
                left  = thor.arenales.lan
                right = tango

end

section: options
        screenSaverSync = true
end
# EoF #

The family grows

The operation keeps growing and growing... Synergy certainly goes more than the extra mile to help keeping things as organized as possible.

Garbled Menu on Tiger (iTunes + Safari)

Finally being able to get ahold of a screenshot of a problem I had a bunch of times while switching between iTunes and Safari windows (the URL is not to be held responsible :p )

Couldn't change anything, the past times, by simply trying to switch windows, the garbled Menu fixes itself; so, I was lucky to had an SSH session opened from Tango, due to my current Synergy setup, so I could run my screenshot script thru that PuTTY.

This seems to be happening only on my Quicksilver beauty, Thor, but ITOH, I don't use -at least for the moment- my PowerBook that much to be able to stumble upon the bug.

Synergy server config

So this won't happen again, I'll post it here, along with the one I already posted for Windows, client side of Synergy.

section: screens
        thor.arenales.lan:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0

        tango:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0
end

section: links
        thor.arenales.lan:
                left = tango
        tango:
                right  = thor.arenales.lan
end

section: options
        screenSaverSync = true
end
# EoF #

Thor reinstall- 2nd problem

This one is actually, it is not even a problem, but merely an annoyance.
Forgot to backup the Synergy configuration file, so, I had to rebuild it from zero.

As usual, when this type of sh*t happens (the lose of a small file, that would take less then 5 seconds to copy) it is more the feeling of being so stupid, than the actual loss.

Synergy clutter

My beloved pair, sharing the keyboard and mouse with Synergy

Power shift

Changed my synergy setup, moved the server to Thor, my Quicksilver beauty, and the client now it is executed from Tango, the main benefit of the whole setup? I can tunnel the traffic between the two boxes thru SSH.

All you have to do is setup a PuTTY connection to the box running Os X (that box has to have the SSHD up & running, and the firewall has to be open to allow connections), you setup the PuTTY session, with the tunnel aiming to the port (24800 is the default), login via SSH to the Os X box, and then execute the client pointing to localhost on the client box.

Presto! That's it!

Here is a screenshot of the PuTTY configuration, the important part, the tunnel, on the client box, on my case, Tango.
The main drawback of all of this? Space, I have an extra keyboard, the one from Thor, on the desk, while the Tango's keyboard (the one built-in on the laptop) simply stays there without being used.

I'll use the setup for a few days and post back if there is a problem.

Synergy buddies

It's been almost 2 weeks now, the 2 of them seems to be getting along pretty, pretty well.

The only problem I'm having is on the Windows side of the synergy, if Vista is a little busy with something, sometimes the jump to the Os x side seems to be a little bumpy; but it is something that does not last more than a couple of seconds; the usual suspect for the load on Vista is some Outlook delay while is stutters and receives a big email attachment.

One keyboard (& mouse) to rule them all

Installed Synergy, the server on Tango, and the whole thing -but executed only the client- on Thor.

Everything seems to be working nice and easy, I'm using Tango as the main one, because I like its keyboard, even tho it is in Spanish... And I can easily save more desktop space, because the keyboard is already attached to one of the two boxes :D

So far so good, no problem what so ever, will continue to use it, and post back if there is any problem; or post some screenshots from the Windows side of the configuration.