| 1 | <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
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| 2 | <html>
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| 3 | <head>
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| 4 | <meta HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html;CHARSET=iso-8859-1">
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| 5 | <meta name="keywords" content="Virtual Screen, Open Source, Software" />
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| 6 | <meta name="description" content="Mouse and Keyboard Sharing" />
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| 7 | <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="synergy.css" media="screen" />
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| 8 | <title>Synergy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
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| 9 | </head>
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| 10 | <body class="main">
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| 11 | <p></p>
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| 12 | <h3>Synergy Frequently Asked Questions</h3>
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| 13 | </p><p>
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| 14 | <h4>Questions</h4>
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| 15 | <ol>
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| 16 | <li><a href="#faq1">Why doesn't ctrl+alt+del work on secondary screens?</a>
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| 17 | <li><a href="#faq2">Can the server and client be using different operating systems?</a>
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| 18 | <li><a href="#faq3">What's the difference between synergy and x2x, x2vnc, etc?</a>
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| 19 | <li><a href="#faq4">What does "Cannot initialize hook library" mean?</a>
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| 20 | <li><a href="#faq5">What security/encryption does synergy provide?</a>
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| 21 | <li><a href="#faq6">What should I call my screens in the configuration?</a>
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| 22 | <li><a href="#faq7">Why do my Caps-Lock, Num-Lock, Scroll-Lock keys act funny?</a>
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| 23 | <li><a href="#faq8">Can synergy share the display in addition to the mouse and keyboard?</a>
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| 24 | <li><a href="#faq9">Can synergy do drag and drop between computers?</a>
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| 25 | <li><a href="#faq10">Do AltGr or Mode-Switch or ISO_Level3_Shift work?</a>
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| 26 | <li><a href="#faq11">Why isn't synergy ported to platform XYZ?</a>
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| 27 | <li><a href="#faq12">My client can't connect. What's wrong?</a>
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| 28 | <li><a href="#faq13">Linking fails on Solaris. What's wrong?</a>
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| 29 | <li><a href="#faq14">The screen saver never starts. Why not?</a>
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| 30 | <li><a href="#faq15">I can't switch screens anymore for no apparent reason. Why?</a>
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| 31 | <li><a href="#faq16">I get the error 'Xlib: No protocol specified'. Why?</a>
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| 32 | <li><a href="#faq17">The cursor goes to secondary screen but won't come back. Why?</a>
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| 33 | <li><a href="#faq18">The cursor wraps from one edge of the screen to the opposite. Why?</a>
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| 34 | <li><a href="#faq19">How do I stop my game from minimizing when I leave the screen?</a>
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| 35 | </ol>
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| 36 | <h4>Answers</h4>
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| 37 | <ol>
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| 38 | <li><a name="faq1"></a><span class="fakelink">Why doesn't ctrl+alt+del work on secondary screens?</span>
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| 39 | <p>
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| 40 | Synergy isn't able to capture ctrl+alt+del on PC compatible
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| 41 | primary screens because it's handled completely differently than
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| 42 | other keystrokes. However, when the mouse is on a client
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| 43 | screen, pressing ctrl+alt+pause will simulate ctrl+alt+del
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| 44 | on the client. (A client running on Windows NT, 2000, or XP
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| 45 | must be configured to autostart when the computer starts for
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| 46 | this to work.)
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| 47 | </p><p>
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| 48 | On a primary screen running on an OS X system, you can use
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| 49 | ctrl+command+del. Using the pause key isn't necessary since OS X
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| 50 | doesn't treat ctrl+command+del differently. And using the pause
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| 51 | key isn't usually possible because there isn't one on most OS X
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| 52 | systems. Use command instead of option/alt because
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| 53 | the command key, not the option/alt key, maps to alt on windows.
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| 54 | The reason is because the command key is in the same physical
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| 55 | location and performs the same general function (menu shortcuts)
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| 56 | as alt on a windows system. This mapping can be modified in
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| 57 | the configuration.
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| 58 | </p><p>
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| 59 | On mac laptops, the key labeled "delete" is actually backspace
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| 60 | and ctrl+command+delete won't work. However fn+delete really
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| 61 | is delete so fn+ctrl+command+delete will act as ctrl+alt+del
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| 62 | on a windows secondary screen.
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| 63 | </p>
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| 64 | <li><a name="faq2"></a><span class="fakelink">Can the server and client be using different operating systems?</span>
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| 65 | <p>
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| 66 | Yes. The synergy network protocol is platform neutral so
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| 67 | synergy doesn't care what operating systems are running on
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| 68 | the server and clients.
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| 69 | </p>
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| 70 | <li><a name="faq3"></a><span class="fakelink">What's the difference between synergy and
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| 71 | <span class="code">x2x</span>, <span class="code">x2vnc</span>, etc?</span>
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| 72 | <p>
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| 73 | Unlike <span class="code">x2x</span>, synergy supports any number of computers and
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| 74 | it doesn't require X on Microsoft Windows platforms. It
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| 75 | also has more advanced clipboard support and synchronizes
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| 76 | screensavers. <span class="code">x2vnc</span> is also limited to two computers,
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| 77 | requires the separate vnc package, and is really only
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| 78 | appropriate for using an X system to control a non-X system.
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| 79 | However, the right tool for the job is whatever tool works
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| 80 | best for you.
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| 81 | </p>
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| 82 | <li><a name="faq4"></a><span class="fakelink">What does "Cannot initialize hook library" mean?</span>
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| 83 | <p>
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| 84 | This error can occur on a synergy server running on a
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| 85 | Microsoft Windows operating system. It means that synergy
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| 86 | is already running or possibly was not shut down properly.
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| 87 | If it's running then first end the synergy task. If it's
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| 88 | not then try logging off and back on or rebooting then
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| 89 | starting synergy again.
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| 90 | </p>
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| 91 | <li><a name="faq5"></a><span class="fakelink">What security/encryption does synergy provide?</span>
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| 92 | <p>
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| 93 | Synergy provides no built-in encryption or authentication.
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| 94 | Given that, synergy should not be used on or over any untrusted
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| 95 | network, especially the Internet. It's generally fine for home
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| 96 | networks. Future versions may provide built-in encryption and
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| 97 | authentication.
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| 98 | </p><p>
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| 99 | Strong encryption and authentication is available through SSH
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| 100 | (secure shell). Run the SSH daemon (i.e. server) on the same
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| 101 | computer that you run the synergy server. It requires no
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| 102 | special configuration to support synergy. On each synergy
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| 103 | client system, run SSH with port forwarding:
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| 104 | </p><p>
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| 105 | <pre>
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| 106 | ssh -f -N -L 24800:<span class="arg">server-hostname</span>:24800 <span class="arg">server-hostname</span>
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| 107 | </pre>
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| 108 | </p><p>
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| 109 | where <span class="arg">server-hostname</span> is the name of the
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| 110 | SSH/synergy server.
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| 111 | Once ssh authenticates itself, start the synergy client
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| 112 | normally except use <span class="code">localhost</span> or
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| 113 | <span class="code">127.0.0.1</span> as the server's
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| 114 | address. SSH will then encrypt all communication on behalf of
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| 115 | synergy. Authentication is handled by the SSH authentication.
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| 116 | </p><p>
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| 117 | A free implementation of SSH for Linux and many Unix systems is
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| 118 | <a target="_top" href="http://www.openssh.com/">OpenSSH</a>. For
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| 119 | Windows there's a port of OpenSSH using
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| 120 | <a target="_top" href="http://www.cygwin.com/">Cygwin<a>.
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| 121 | </p>
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| 122 | <li><a name="faq6"></a><span class="fakelink">What should I call my screens in the configuration?</span>
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| 123 | <p>
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| 124 | You can use any unique name in the configuration file for each
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| 125 | screen but it's easiest to use the hostname of the computer.
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| 126 | That's the computer name not including the domain. For example,
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| 127 | a computer with the fully qualified domain name <span class="code">xyz.foo.com</span> has
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| 128 | the hostname <span class="code">xyz</span>. There should also be an alias for <span class="code">xyz</span> to
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| 129 | <span class="code">xyz.foo.com</span>. If you don't use the computer's hostname, you
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| 130 | have to tell synergy the name of the screen using a command line
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| 131 | option, or the startup dialog on Windows.
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| 132 | </p><p>
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| 133 | Some systems are configured to report the fully qualified domain
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| 134 | name as the hostname. For those systems it will be easier to use
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| 135 | the FQDN as the screen name. Also note that a Mac OS X system
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| 136 | named <span class="code">xyz</span> may report its hostname as
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| 137 | <span class="code">xyz.local</span>. If that's the case for you
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| 138 | then use <span class="code">xyz.local</span> as the screen name.
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| 139 | </p>
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| 140 | <li><a name="faq7"></a><span class="fakelink">Why do my Caps-Lock, Num-Lock, Scroll-Lock keys act funny?</span>
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| 141 | <p>
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| 142 | Some systems treat the Caps-Lock, Num-Lock, and Scroll-Lock keys
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| 143 | differently than all the others. Whereas most keys report going down
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| 144 | when physically pressed and going up when physically released, on
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| 145 | these systems the Caps-Lock and Num-Lock keys report going down
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| 146 | when being activated and going up when being deactivated. That
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| 147 | is, when you press and release, say, Caps-Lock to activate it, it
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| 148 | only reports going down, and when you press and release to
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| 149 | deactivate it, it only reports going up. This confuses synergy.
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| 150 | </p><p>
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| 151 | You can solve the problem by changing your configuration file.
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| 152 | In the screens section, following each screen that has the
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| 153 | problem, any or all of these lines as appropriate:
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| 154 | </p><p>
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| 155 | <pre>
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| 156 | halfDuplexCapsLock = true
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| 157 | halfDuplexNumLock = true
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| 158 | halfDuplexScrollLock = true
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| 159 | </pre>
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| 160 | </p><p>
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| 161 | Then restart synergy on the server or reload the configuration.
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| 162 | </p>
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| 163 | <li><a name="faq8"></a><span class="fakelink">Can synergy share the display in addition to the mouse and keyboard?</span>
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| 164 | <p>
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| 165 | No. Synergy is a KM solution not a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse)
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| 166 | solution. However, future versions will probably support KVM.
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| 167 | Hopefully, this will make synergy suitable for managing large
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| 168 | numbers of headless servers.
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| 169 | </p>
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| 170 | <li><a name="faq9"></a><span class="fakelink">Can synergy do drag and drop between computers?</span>
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| 171 | <p>
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| 172 | No. That's a very cool idea and it'll be explored. However, it's
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| 173 | also clearly difficult and may take a long time to implement.
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| 174 | </p>
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| 175 | <li><a name="faq10"></a><span class="fakelink">Does AltGr/Mode-Switch/ISO_Level3_Shift work?</span>
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| 176 | <p>
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| 177 | Yes, as of 1.0.12 synergy has full support for AltGr/Mode-switch.
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| 178 | That includes support for most (all?) European keyboard layouts.
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| 179 | All systems should be using the same keyboard layout, though, for
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| 180 | all characters to work. (Any character missing from a client's
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| 181 | layout cannot be generated by synergy.) There is experimental
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| 182 | support for ISO_Level3_Shift in 1.1.3.
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| 183 | </p>
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| 184 | <li><a name="faq11"></a><span class="fakelink">Why isn't synergy ported to platform XYZ?</span>
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| 185 | <p>
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| 186 | Probably because the developers don't have access to platform XYZ
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| 187 | and/or are unfamiliar with development on XYZ. Also, synergy has
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| 188 | inherently non-portable aspects so there's a not insignificant
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| 189 | effort involved in porting.
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| 190 | </p>
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| 191 | <li><a name="faq12"></a><span class="fakelink">My client can't connect. What's wrong?</span>
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| 192 | <p>
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| 193 | A common mistake when starting the client is to give the wrong
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| 194 | server host name. The last synergyc command line option (Unix)
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| 195 | or the "Server Host Name" edit field (Windows) should be the
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| 196 | host name (or IP address) of the server <b>not</b> the client's host
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| 197 | name. If you get the error <span class="code">connection failed: cannot connect
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| 198 | socket</span> followed by <span class="code">the attempt to connect was forcefully
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| 199 | rejected</span> or <span class="code">connection refused</span> then the server isn't started,
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| 200 | can't bind the address, or the client is connecting to the wrong
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| 201 | host name/address or port. See the
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| 202 | <a href="trouble.html">troublshooting</a> page for more help.
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| 203 | </p>
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| 204 | <li><a name="faq13"></a><span class="fakelink">Linking fails on Solaris. What's wrong?</span>
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| 205 | <p>
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| 206 | Did you add
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| 207 | </p><p>
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| 208 | <pre>
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| 209 | <nobr>--x-includes=/usr/openwin/include --x-libraries=/usr/openwin/lib</nobr>
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| 210 | </pre>
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| 211 | </p><p>
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| 212 | to the <span class="code">configure</span> command line? Solaris puts
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| 213 | the X11 includes and libraries in an unusual place and the above lets
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| 214 | synergy find them.
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| 215 | </p>
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| 216 | <li><a name="faq14"></a><span class="fakelink">The screen saver never starts. Why not?</span>
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| 217 | <p>
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| 218 | If the synergy server is on X Windows then the screen saver will
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| 219 | not start while the mouse is on a client screen. This is a
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| 220 | consequence of how X Windows, synergy and xscreensaver work.
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| 221 | </p>
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| 222 | <li><a name="faq15"></a><span class="fakelink">I can't switch screens anymore for no apparent reason. Why?</span>
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| 223 | <p>
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| 224 | This should not happen with 1.1.3 and up. Earlier versions of
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| 225 | synergy would not allow switching screens when a key was down and
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| 226 | sometimes it would believe a key was down when it was not.
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| 227 | </p>
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| 228 | <li><a name="faq16"></a><span class="fakelink">I get the error 'Xlib: No protocol specified'. Why?</span>
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| 229 | <p>
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| 230 | You're running synergy without authorization to connect to the
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| 231 | X display. Typically the reason is running synergy as root when
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| 232 | logged in as non-root. Just run synergy as the same user that's
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| 233 | logged in.
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| 234 | </p>
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| 235 | <li><a name="faq17"></a><span class="fakelink">The cursor goes to secondary screen but won't come back. Why?</span>
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| 236 | <p>
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| 237 | Your configuration is incorrect. You must indicate the neighbors
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| 238 | of every screen. Just because you've configured 'Apple' to be to
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| 239 | the left of 'Orange' does not mean that 'Orange' is to the right
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| 240 | of 'Apple'. You must provide both in the configuration.
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| 241 | </p>
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| 242 | <li><a name="faq18"></a><span class="fakelink">The cursor wraps from one edge of the screen to the opposite. Why?</span>
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| 243 | <p>
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| 244 | Because you told it to. If you list 'Orange' to be to the left of
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| 245 | 'Orange' then moving the mouse off the left edge of 'Orange' will
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| 246 | make it jump to the right edge. Remove the offending line from the
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| 247 | configuration if you don't want that behavior.
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| 248 | </p>
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| 249 | <li><a name="faq19"></a><span class="fakelink">How do I stop my game from minimizing when I leave the screen?</span>
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| 250 | <p>
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| 251 | Many full screen applications, particularly games, automatically
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| 252 | minimize when they're no longer the active (foreground) application
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| 253 | on Microsoft Windows. The synergy server normally becomes the foreground
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| 254 | when you switch to another screen in order to more reliably capture all
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| 255 | user input causing those full screen applications to minimize. To
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| 256 | prevent synergy from stealing the foreground just click "Options..."
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| 257 | and check "Don't take foreground window on Windows servers." If you
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| 258 | turn this on then be aware that synergy may not function correctly when
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| 259 | certain programs, particularly the command prompt, are the foreground
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| 260 | when you switch to other screens. Simply make a different program the
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| 261 | foreground before switching to work around that.
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| 262 | </p>
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| 263 | </ol>
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| 264 | </body>
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| 265 |
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| 266 | </html>
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