Synergy-core: Chrome OS support

[nbolton]

Imported issue:

• Author: Nick Bolton
• Date: 2012-11-21 20:38:51
• Legacy ID: 3433

Not sure what is possible yet. It's Linux-based so that might help.

[nbolton]

• Author: Alexander Borsi
• Date: 2013-01-21 23:39:25

I would also like this. I replaced a dead laptop with a chromebook and I miss my synergy setup very much.

[nbolton]

• Author: Tyler Abbott
• Date: 2013-02-07 20:09:42

Would also like to request this.

[nbolton]

• Author: Justin Duyn
• Date: 2013-03-17 19:30:47

Would be very helpfull. I'm gonna figure this out ATM personally. All I use this extra notebook for is my synology station, which is just a web app. Having Ubuntu on it is heavy, but ChromeOS would be just perfect!

[nbolton]

• Author: Tom Worrall
• Date: 2013-04-21 16:51:33

Successfully compiled and ran version 1.4.11 on chromeOS 28.0.1484.1

  - Compiled using chroot chromium/cros

  - Note: chromeOS defaults to noexec (if running from shell/crosh?), just allow exec on somewhere like /tmp (e.g. sudo mount -o exec,remount /tmp)

[nbolton]

• Author: Aron Griffis
• Date: 2013-05-20 01:11:33

Tom, could you provide more details? You say it ran, but is it fully working? Could you provide any more pointers for building it? I've plenty of experience building, but little experience in the Chrome OS world. Thanks!

[nbolton]

• Author: Aron Griffis
• Date: 2013-05-20 01:53:23

Actually I have this working, but I don't know if I'm doing the same thing as you since I didn't build it. Here's what I did:

1. Install crouton. This involves switching the Chromebook to dev mode, etc. See http://www.howtogeek.com/162120/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-your-chromebook-with-crouton/
2. Build your chroot with -t xephyr
3. sudo enter-chroot
4. sudo apt-get install synergy
5. export DISPLAY=:0.0 XAUTHORITY=/etc/X11/host-Xauthority (see https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/issues/1 and https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/issues/126)
6. sudo apt-get install synergy
7. synergyc ...

This isn't running on Chrome OS proper since it's inside the chroot but it does allow FULL CONTROL of Chrome OS.

[nbolton]

• Author: Adam Foley
• Date: 2013-05-22 15:22:02

I've got this working with crouton per Aron's instructions, though I built with Unity target.

The only issue I have is clipboard doesn't seem to be working. Otherwise working as expected (and I love it!)

[nbolton]

• Author: Faber X
• Date: 2013-07-25 23:52:33

Aaron, this is working great. Does anyone know of a way of starting synergyc either on boot, or better yet, on connection to specific access points?

[nbolton]

• Author: Robert Cobbs
• Date: 2013-10-29 17:48:37

Aron, thank you so much for the instructions! I struggled with the final step, so I wanted to drop a comment to add to Aron's instructions for anyone else that may be trying to get this to work.

Starting with Aron' instructions at step 7:

1. host-x11 syngeryc -n My-Chromebook 10.10.10.1

Where "My-Chromebook" is the name the chromebook sends to the Synergy server, and 10.10.10.1 is the IP of the server running Synergy.

[nbolton]

• Author: Dylan Mitchell-Funk
• Date: 2013-11-10 04:50:42

Hi everyone, I can successfully use my Chromebook to connect as a synergy client, but when I try to run it as a server it crashes. I thought it might have something to do with the _export DISPLAY=:0.0 XAUTHORITY=/etc/X11/host-Xauthority_ command... but that's beyond my ken. Any ideas?

I get the following output:

2013-11-09T23:47:49 INFO: Synergy 1.3.8 Server on Linux 3.8.11 #1 SMP Wed Nov 6 16:04:07 PST 2013 x86_64
        /build/buildd/synergy-1.3.8/src/cmd/synergys/synergys.cpp,1098
2013-11-09T23:47:49 DEBUG: opening configuration "/etc/synergy.conf"
        /build/buildd/synergy-1.3.8/src/cmd/synergys/synergys.cpp,1113
2013-11-09T23:47:49 DEBUG: configuration read successfully
        /build/buildd/synergy-1.3.8/src/cmd/synergys/synergys.cpp,1124
2013-11-09T23:47:49 DEBUG: XOpenDisplay(":0.0")
        /build/buildd/synergy-1.3.8/src/lib/platform/CXWindowsScreen.cpp,901
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
2013-11-09T23:47:49 WARNING: cannot open primary screen: unable to open screen
        /build/buildd/synergy-1.3.8/src/cmd/synergys/synergys.cpp,450
2013-11-09T23:47:49 DEBUG: retry in 60 seconds
        /build/buildd/synergy-1.3.8/src/cmd/synergys/synergys.cpp,472

[nbolton]

• Author: Jake Sylvestre
• Date: 2014-01-02 13:18:58

Can it work without a root, as a chrome app?

[nbolton]

• Author: Daniel Chalmers
• Date: 2014-03-25 04:34:49

Can we get a chrome app, or non-root version for ChromeOS?

[nbolton]

• Author: Joe Avery
• Date: 2014-05-29 20:17:52

I would really like to see a synergy extension. I would like to have a chrome box to share the load on my desk with my Ubuntu PC. Also Chromebook to PC or Chromebook to Chromebook would be a key feature.

[nbolton]

• Author: Felipe Micaroni Lalli
• Date: 2014-08-07 18:33:04

Hi! I'd love to see Synergy as Web APP on Chrome! So I can use in my CrOS Linux

[nbolton]

• Author: Ray Foss
• Date: 2014-08-16 18:50:01

Web app sounds like a tall order, and probably not the most performant approach. a PNaCl chrome app would be ideal, whether the API's are there to make it happen is the big question.

[fsih]

+1

[epocoursera]

Hi,
I tried very hard to make this happen via my Acer C720P and my macbook pro !

From the steps described by Aaron, i've done all the commands but when i launch synergyc to my serveur, nothing happen. My server still waiting for client. Here is what is logged when I run synergyc:

renaud@chromebook:~$ synergyc -f 192.168.1.21
2015-03-21T17:41:17 INFO: Synergy 1.3.8 Client on Linux 3.8.11 #1 SMP Sat Mar 7 06:52:13 PST 2015 x86_64
/build/buildd/synergy-1.3.8/src/cmd/synergyc/synergyc.cpp,765
2015-03-21T17:41:17 DEBUG: XOpenDisplay(":0.0")
/build/buildd/synergy-1.3.8/src/lib/platform/CXWindowsScreen.cpp,901
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
2015-03-21T17:41:17 WARNING: cannot open secondary screen: unable to open screen
/build/buildd/synergy-1.3.8/src/cmd/synergyc/synergyc.cpp,346
2015-03-21T17:41:17 DEBUG: retry in 60 seconds
/build/buildd/synergy-1.3.8/src/cmd/synergyc/synergyc.cpp,246
synergyc: /build/buildd/synergy-1.3.8/src/lib/platform/CXWindowsScreen.cpp:112: CXWindowsScreen::CXWindowsScreen(const char*, bool, bool, int): Assertion `s_screen == __null' failed.
Aborted (core dumped)

FYI i have successfully configured synergy with Ubuntu on my chromebook but i'm interested of controlling Chrome OS only !

Can someone help me ?
Much appreciated

[epocoursera]

I resolved the issue by doing this (thanks Aaron to share this with us):

• Install crouton. This involves switching the Chromebook to dev mode, etc. Seehttp://www.howtogeek.com/162120/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-your-chromebook-with-crouton/
• Build your chroot with -t xephyr
• sudo enter-chroot
• export DISPLAY=:0.0 XAUTHORITY=/etc/X11/host-Xauthority (see dnschneid/crouton#1 anddnschneid/crouton#126)
• sudo apt-get install synergy
• _host-x11 synergyc ip_addr_

Allowing full control of Chrome OS

[ericmaster]

Has anybody figured the clipboard sync part?

[opticron]

Does this work with xiwi or is there another way to accomplish this given dnschneid's February 14th comment on https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/issues/1 ?

[ghost]

+1

[JoshMcCullough]

When running host-x11 synergyc [ip], I get this message: _No Chromium OS X server is available._

Not sure what to do about that...any ideas?

[andymeneely]

I get the same error as you @JoshMcCullough

[thetestproject]

I'm getting the same error as @JoshMcCullough and @andymeneely. Anyone have any progress with this? I'd love to use it with my Chromebook.

[opticron]

I solved this problem by installing Debian on my hardware. Chrome OS runs Freon in modern versions and synergy does not support Freon, as far as I know. I can see two clear paths forward and neither looks easy or quick: add Freon support to synergy or create a Freon/X11 compatibility layer for crouton.

[nielsharland]

+1 for stock ChromeOS devices.

[Petermbartholomew]

+1 for stock

[md2100]

Would love this feature -- for now I'm stuck running xfce when I want to use synergy on my chromebook.

[g3ortega]

I would love to have this feature, that way I would be able to use my workstation running linux, from my chromebook that I use in my day to day

[DevBadger]

+1 for stock

[terryjohnbradford]

+1 for stock - chromeos

[dzsquared]

Also very interested in the stock option for a ChromeOS synergy client.

[lindgrenj6]

+1 For stock chromeOS Support! Would be a great feature!

[oywino]

+1 for Stock Chrome OS support! How hard can it be to write an extension (for an experienced programmer) ?

[rickybrent]

+1, but I suspect the answer here is "very".

[ericmaster]

Any news on this?

[superdug]

Would love to have a native chrome OS app for synergy.

[cprovatas]

Hi,

I've tried the above steps to install synergy on my asus chromebook flip CP100 with crouton, but every time I try 'synergyc [IP]' I get this mysterious info message:

'INFO: Synergy 1.4.12 Client on Linux 3.14.0 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Mar 29 21:59:41 PDT 2017 arm7l
/build/buildd/synergy-1.4.12/src/lib/synergy/CClientApp.cpp, 164'

I checked the source and that line appears to just be returning a string based on OS type, but perhaps I'm looking in the wrong branch or version.

I've tried using those specific build options instructed above. One ubuntu forum page appears to (sort of) reference this issue, attributing it to 'mir' packages. I've tried installing and uninstalling all 'mir' packages to now avail. IP address doesn't seem to matter. I can enter 'synergyc foo' and it will give the same error.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

update: i tested using a couple different CI arguments and end up getting a seg fault when running '--no-daemon'!

trusty)charles@localhost:/$ synergyc --restart --no-daemon --no-xinitthreads --name charles --no-tray 192.xxx.x.x
2017-04-01T10:42:36 INFO: Synergy 1.4.12 Client on Linux 3.14.0 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Mar 29 21:59:41 PDT 2017 armv7l
/build/buildd/synergy-1.4.12/src/lib/synergy/CClientApp.cpp,164
2017-04-01T10:42:36 DEBUG: skipping XInitThreads()
/build/buildd/synergy-1.4.12/src/lib/platform/CXWindowsScreen.cpp,129
2017-04-01T10:42:36 DEBUG: XOpenDisplay(":0.0")
/build/buildd/synergy-1.4.12/src/lib/platform/CXWindowsScreen.cpp,912
2017-04-01T10:42:36 WARNING: secondary screen unavailable: unable to open screen
/build/buildd/synergy-1.4.12/src/lib/synergy/CClientApp.cpp,479
2017-04-01T10:42:36 DEBUG: retry in 60 seconds
/build/buildd/synergy-1.4.12/src/lib/synergy/CClientApp.cpp,344
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

[bafinneg]

+1 for stock ChromeOS/Chromebook support

[greenup]

Native ChromeOS option please?
with clipboard support? (since that's kindof a killer feature...)
thanks-

[Marcus-Freitas]

Any news on this topic? Chrome OS is really growing, I work on a small store and we sell over a thousand chrome devices a month, you guys should really make this a priority!

[jvschiavo]

3 years later, any news?

[dayne]

Bump for this topic.

Newer Chromebooks now support Android apps. Synergy dev team might consider revisiting getting synergy on a modern chromebook with that as an option.

Previously it appears synergy to android devices (using Cyanogen mod) was working: https://github.com/symless/synergy-android-cyanogen

[danielgraycode]

Still looking for proper synergy support for chromebooks, it would be a nice addon.

[jvschiavo]

Suggestion: rename issue to "Platform Request: Chrome OS server support"

I know this may sound dumb since "Chrome OS support" is already pretty straightforward, but since Chromebooks now support Play Store, it means that supporting Android equals to supporting Chrome OS, so my suggestion is to focus this issue specifically on server support on Chrome OS, so we leave #531 with client only, for both Android and Chrome OS.

Edit: if you agree with me please change both names for consistency. :)

[greenup]

was this closed because nbolton finally gave up?
from what I can tell, synergy still doesn't support ChromeOS.
Recently they had a big push on a new version, and I looked through the list of things and said to myself: "Still no ChromeOS. Guess it's not worth it. (yet)"

[digitalextremist]

Would this change based on native support for Debian perhaps? Chrome OS has Debian support in the beta channel now, but I don't imagine it has a lot of control over the host OS's window manager.

[Charles-IV]

Would this change based on native support for Debian perhaps? Chrome OS has Debian support in the beta channel now, but I don't imagine it has a lot of control over the host OS's window manager.

I installed synergy using the linux apps support, which I assume you're talking about, but while it ran, I couldn't get it working. According to reddit, and some people who did get it working, it can't control ChromeOS because linux apps are run in a container, and the same probably goes for using the android app

[MarkJRigdon]

+1 and bump. ChromeOS has a HUGE following now. As of release of ChromeOS 69 this month ChromeOS now natively supports Linux Apps without entering Developer mode on the machine. This has been enabled in only a few chromebook versions but expect this to roll out to all new chromebooks with the right chips soon. One of my chromebooks supports it, another does not. Schools and teachers use tens of thousands of chromebooks all over the US now. Let's get this included folks! I'm a mac, linux, windows, chromeOS user myself and this needs some love finally.

[dayne]

I too would love this feature, however, we might want to temper our enthusiasm a bit. I am not an expert by no means for ChromeOS or how exactly how the new Crostini system is working. I am familiar with VMs, containers, and security systems and I don't expect this is as easy as we would hope it would be.

I think it would be a stretch to think they would allow a crostini container to take control of mouse and keyboard in a way that it was allowed to provide input to non-container applications (everything else on the chromebook). That opens an attack vector for malicious container apps to do naughty things to the chromebook.

Like @Charles-IV said, this is the same issue is true for android apps on a chromebook. Taking over control of the human input (mouse/keyboard) for things outside the scope of the app would be problematic from a security stance.

Pretty sure the direction to get proper synergy is to develop a native chromeapp that can be granted permissions to manage keyboard/mouse at the 'root' level of the OS. My guess is that would likely mean a whole new code base though and I'm not sure how decoupled/documented the client/server protocol is that might allow for multiple different code bases to all talk to each other as client/servers.

This is way out of my scope of knowledge for this system. I would be very interested to hear from one of the developers familiar with the guts of the server/client protocol.

[kpanko]

From the ChromeOS Containers FAQ here: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/containers_and_vms.md#Will-synergy-work

Will synergy work?
Synergy will not work (as a client or server). It requires capturing and spoofing inputs (e.g. mouse/keyboard) for all windows. Since we‘re built on top of Wayland, by design, one client cannot get access to any other client on the system. This is a strong security boundary between clients as we don’t want arbitrary code running inside of a container being able to break out and attack other clients (like the browser) and sending arbitrary keystrokes.

There are no plans to ever enable this kind of control from the container. This isn‘t to say a synergy-like solution will never happen in Chrome OS (e.g. something like CRD), just that the solution won’t be synergy or any other tool in a container.

You can run synergy, and probably get it to convey input events for the single window that it‘s running under, but that’s as close as you'll get.

[blakjakau]

I really like Synergy, it was a goto on every linux desktop I had for nearly 10 years. Then I switched to using ChromeOS.

I think the a viable solution here is actually to make a chrome extension that captures mouse+key input and then have a web-socket enabled endpoint in synergy that the chrome extension can post inputs to.

I wrote a Chrome extension and NodeJS server for private use that did exactly this a couple of years ago, I used xinput to control the cursor/keyboard from NodeJS. I never got around to making it work with a windows or mac target, because I was only using linux at home and at work.

So, I'm 100% certain that this can be done, but there are some caveats to doing this in a chrome:

• Chrome device has to be the input server (host), there is no way to trigger input the events programatically in ChromeOS (AFAIK).
• Chrome extension/app can only capture keyboard+mouse when the app window is active AND after a positive user interaction (click / touch), capture cannot be triggered by a mouse move event.
• Chrome extension/app must have a large enough window when active to track the cursor in capture mode.

I worked around these caveates by having a 2px bar at the top of the ChromeOS screen and you click it to active the remote control, during control the extension window when full-screen and showed the client you were controlling, you could come back to controlling Chrome by dragging the mouse throughthe bottom of the client's screen, or by hitting CTRL+ESC twice.

I used this for over a year in ChromeOS 59 through 65 on my Asus Flip 302 to my Ubuntu workstations. I stopped using it when I got a Pixelbook, with linux app support, and moved my workflow to that.

If anyone is interested in setting up a compatible reciever as part of Synergy (or even separately). I'd be happy to be involved in such a project.

[nbolton]

The stale tag simply means there wasn't any activity on the issue for a while, so we closed the issue (this was a bulk action). Interestingly, there was a period from late 2017 to early 2018 when we didn't hear this request from users. But, it seems like people are interested in this again. I can't promise that we will implement this, but it's certainly an interesting feature request.

[ClashTheBunny]

@blakjakau
What you describe is exactly what I need. Do you have all the components still? Would you mind posting the source somewhere?

[blakjakau]

Hey @ClashTheBunny looks like I do still have all the components. I haven't used any of it since late 2017, so not sure it will 100% work with current versions of ChromeOS, but it certainly it should be easy enough to make it so. The configuration (ip addresses, keymappings etc) are all hardcoded - since it was purely a private project, but that stuff is pretty easy to make configurable too.

I've uploaded all the source code to a github repo for now: https://github.com/blakjakau/chromote

[AlexFromNL]

@nbolton I really hope Synergy might be abled and implement this :) I think more companies are using cloud and because of that chrome devices might grow in attention. Didn't do the market research though ;)

In my case; my work desktop environment consist of a chrome os device and a docking station for my laptop. I often like to use both so a cross platform tool would really help.

[dragon788]

I was able to get Synergy "sort of" working on ChromeOS, but there are some fairly significant caveats such as an invisible cursor and only being able to interact with apps that live within the Linux apps and in particular that are launched under the say X DISPLAY as Synergy.

Since ChromeOS has switched over to using Wayland as their primary display environment and Synergy is primarily an Xorg/X11 client, the current way that I've worked around the issue (similar to what is mentioned in the Chrome documentation above ) is to run an alternate X server in full screen but one of the side effects of the way I had it working was that the cursor wasn't actually visible and the ChromeOS cursor didn't update to follow the location of the cursor from Synergy, luckily my window manager had focus follows mouse enabled so I was able to track the cursor a little bit by watching which window activated, and since I have a primarily keyboard centric workflow it didn't really impact my ability to be productive.

I'm still experimenting to see whether adding Sommelier into the mix (the ChromeOS Linux apps to Wayland bridge) allows tracking the cursor and maybe getting slightly better clipboard integration, but for the moment it has been functional enough for my goal of being able to use my Chromebook for a "secure" and disposable development environment while still being able to interact with my Windows and macOS machines for working on projects that specifically require Visual Studio or Xcode.

[Petermbartholomew]

@nbolton More and more people are using chromebooks and the market shares of both macOS and Windows are declining. This use case in the times of cobbled together home set-ups due to COVID-19.

[nbolton]

We'd love to support ChromeOS. I can't share any more other than saying just that, but it is definitely something we're interested in.

[jeffreyworsley]

this can work we just have to think out-of-the-box a bit for instance I can control my Chromebook using anydesk very similar to a VNC that means that somehow anydesk is able to have a protocol to transmit and receive X Y coordinates for what is been clicked I mean at least in the Android container knowing this could we not just reverse-engineer how anydesk works or what API uses I do believe that the anydesk server on Android requires on screen overlay my assumption is that on the client side wherever clicked or pushed transmits to the Android app, it is the overlay that actually simulates a click either way I still think this can be done without transmitting any video or pictures or anything like that but just to reverse-engineer on how AnyDesk on the Chrome or Android is controlling the device and then just create a Synergy Client app version

[jeffreyworsley]

here's another idea. we also know that Chrome remote control/desktop works and I think that's based off of VNC and that's open source. so we should look in find out how it's container works, even better once we figure that out Chrome plugin as a synergy client.

https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/master/docs/old_chromoting_build_instructions.md

[nbolton]

I feel like I'm hearing about ChromeOS every day now. It would be awesome to add ChromeOS support.

[nbolton]

@symless/synergy-core @symless/blacksheep

[jeffreyworsley]

@symless/synergy-core @symless/blacksheep

this would be using the linux route, but i still believe we can make an app to run native or the ever so wanted chrome plugin.

https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/containers_and_vms.md

"Sommelier is a Wayland proxy compositor that runs inside the container. Sommelier provides seamless forwarding of contents, input events, clipboard data, etc... between Wayland applications inside the container and Chrome.

Chrome does not run an X server or otherwise support the X protocol; thus Sommelier is also responsible for starting up XWayland (in rootless mode), acting as the X window manager to the clients, and translating the X protocol inside the container into the Wayland protocol for Chrome."

someone showed https://github.com/symless/synergy-android-cyanogen though im sure that is not working anymore since it's 7yrs old, then i see projects like: https://github.com/blakjakau/chromote im sure this is possible.. i also understand that to make a separate app for every platform gets tough to manage... so if we just keep it the linux method on chrome os, then Sommelier may be the way to go. if not, like i said, other remote desktops like vnc and anydesk work... just make one of those without streaming video

[nbolton]

I spoke with @blakjakau and he identified some issues that he faced (either controlling ChromeOS or intercepting HID data).

[jeffreyworsley]

@nbolton

I spoke with @blakjakau and he identified some issues that he faced (either controlling ChromeOS or intercepting HID data).

https://remotedesktop.google.com/support/
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/master/remoting/host/

this is the source to remotedesktop 'chromoting' the plugin and source to googles app... I'm sure looking at this we can reverse engineer the InputEvents and FakeInputEvent and use that as an entry in, create the library and add it to synergy...

and if done correctly using webrtc, we can make a synergy chrome plugin!!! even for android phones and tablets.

[adavisme]

I wish I had the skills to help with this. Right now I have a very cobbled together solution to control my chromebook from my windows machine. I am running Duet Display on my chromebook setting it up as a third monitor on my windows machine. In that app (or on that display of the windows environment) I am running a chrome remote desktop remote support session. Once I connect that and minimize Duet on my chromebook, I have control of my chromebook as long as the remote desktop instance is the active app on the windows machine. It works great except when something disconnects and then I have to reconnect everything. I'd be happy to help testing anything better.

[grassmudhorses]

This seems like a very valuable feature - with the rise of big hardware manufacturers making chromebooks as low cost machines, we may be seeing chromeos overtake linux home users.

And I can for sure say that I will personally use this more often in my work with my chromebook machines and will buy a new license for use at work if Synergy worked on chromeos.

[srpayo]

I would also ;like to have this feature to be able to control my chromebook as a 2nd screen for my Windows or MacOS laptops....

I found an android app project called Synergy Android Client which seems to be able to connect to the "server" but there's no display of cursor on the chromebook unfortunately. However the server says it is connected so maybe it will help the developers...?

Here's the link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/synergyandroid/

My server logs:

[2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: starting new process
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: activeDesktop:Default
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: starting new process
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] ERROR: failed to get desktop path, no drop target available, error=2
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] NOTE: clipboard sharing is disabled
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] NOTE: started server, waiting for clients
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: service status: active
[2020-05-25T12:07:51] NOTE: accepted client connection
[2020-05-25T12:07:51] NOTE: client "chromeOS" has connected
[2020-05-25T12:07:56] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at 411,370
[2020-05-25T12:07:56] INFO: leaving screen
[2020-05-25T12:07:57] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at 34,499
[2020-05-25T12:07:57] INFO: entering screen
[2020-05-25T12:07:58] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at 411,537
[2020-05-25T12:07:58] INFO: leaving screen
[2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at 23,896
[2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: entering screen
[2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at 411,516
[2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: leaving screen
[2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at 24,815
[2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: entering screen
[2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at 411,528
[2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: leaving screen
[2020-05-25T12:08:05] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at 47,701

[jeffreyworsley]

the regular Linux client on chromeOS does that too... nothing special about
the android one

On Mon, May 25, 2020 at 3:18 AM Carles [e-mail] wrote:

I would also ;like to have this feature to be able to control my
chromebook as a 2nd screen for my Windows or MacOS laptops....

I found an android app project called Synergy Android Client which seems
to be able to connect to the "server" but there's no display of cursor on
the chromebook unfortunately. However the server says it is connected so
maybe it will help the developers...?

Here's the link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/synergyandroid/

My server logs:

[2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: starting new process
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: activeDesktop:Default
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: starting new process
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] ERROR: failed to get desktop path, no drop target
available, error=2
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] NOTE: clipboard sharing is disabled
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] NOTE: started server, waiting for clients
[2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: service status: active
[2020-05-25T12:07:51] NOTE: accepted client connection
[2020-05-25T12:07:51] NOTE: client "chromeOS" has connected
[2020-05-25T12:07:56] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at
411,370
[2020-05-25T12:07:56] INFO: leaving screen
[2020-05-25T12:07:57] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at
34,499
[2020-05-25T12:07:57] INFO: entering screen
[2020-05-25T12:07:58] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at
411,537
[2020-05-25T12:07:58] INFO: leaving screen
[2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at
23,896
[2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: entering screen
[2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at
411,516
[2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: leaving screen
[2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at
24,815
[2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: entering screen
[2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at
411,528
[2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: leaving screen
[2020-05-25T12:08:05] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at
47,701

—
You are receiving this because you commented.
Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub
https://github.com/symless/synergy-core/issues/3363#issuecomment-633498918,
or unsubscribe
https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AH33TW2XTB5TFBPEBLN2HX3RTJAXVANCNFSM4AVXRVDQ
.

[srpayo]

the regular Linux client on chromeOS does that too... nothing special about the android one
…
On Mon, May 25, 2020 at 3:18 AM Carles @.*> wrote: I would also ;like to have this feature to be able to control my chromebook as a 2nd screen for my Windows or MacOS laptops.... I found an android app project called Synergy Android Client which seems to be able to connect to the "server" but there's no display of cursor on the chromebook unfortunately. However the server says it is connected so maybe it will help the developers...? Here's the link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/synergyandroid/ My server logs: [2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: starting new process [2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: activeDesktop:Default [2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: starting new process [2020-05-25T12:06:42] ERROR: failed to get desktop path, no drop target available, error=2 [2020-05-25T12:06:42] NOTE: clipboard sharing is disabled [2020-05-25T12:06:42] NOTE: started server, waiting for clients [2020-05-25T12:06:42] INFO: service status: active [2020-05-25T12:07:51] NOTE: accepted client connection [2020-05-25T12:07:51] NOTE: client "chromeOS" has connected [2020-05-25T12:07:56] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at 411,370 [2020-05-25T12:07:56] INFO: leaving screen [2020-05-25T12:07:57] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at 34,499 [2020-05-25T12:07:57] INFO: entering screen [2020-05-25T12:07:58] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at 411,537 [2020-05-25T12:07:58] INFO: leaving screen [2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at 23,896 [2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: entering screen [2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at 411,516 [2020-05-25T12:08:02] INFO: leaving screen [2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at 24,815 [2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: entering screen [2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: switch from "NLL000FLZX3X2" to "chromeOS" at 411,528 [2020-05-25T12:08:03] INFO: leaving screen [2020-05-25T12:08:05] INFO: switch from "chromeOS" to "NLL000FLZX3X2" at 47,701 — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3363 (comment)>, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AH33TW2XTB5TFBPEBLN2HX3RTJAXVANCNFSM4AVXRVDQ .

Fair enough, I was just trying different approaches to see if any would actually work with the chromeOS directly but so far running a linux distro with crouton is the best I could find as well. Thanks! Looking forward to synergy running natively on chromebooks someday 👍

[dragon788]

I've had good luck with the method I posted above though I haven't tested using window managers other than i3 yet.

https://github.com/symless/synergy-core/issues/3363#issuecomment-593628608

[jeffreyworsley]

any progress?

[ericmaster]

This is a feature I've been waiting for a while and would love to support it. Possible via crowdfunding maybe? @nbolton

[andrewthetechie]

I'm a daily synergy user and I'd love to switch one of my machines to my pixelbook. I currently use synergy to use one mouse/keyboard to control all of my machines and would want a chromeos client.

[espoelstra]

A native ChromeOS client is highly unlikely since Google is killing off Chrome Apps. It is possible to use Synergy using the workarounds presented in https://github.com/symless/synergy-core/issues/3363#issuecomment-593628608

You could also use Crouton instead of Crostini, but I think the limitation around what apps you can interact with might be similarly limited to ones launched from the Crouton environment and not the host Chrome windows.

[andrewthetechie]

Unfortunately that work around really doesn't work all that well for actually using the Chromebook. I have a keyboard + trackball plugged into a Mac as the server, use a second machine (Currently Windows, would like to switch for Chromeos) as a synergy client.

I've been toying with the idea of https://github.com/alexvanyo/hid-synergy as a possible hardware solution, but I think its digitizer size limitations would cause problems - I'm running 2x4k monitors from my pixelbook.

[andreacndn]

@andrewthetechie , support for ChromeOS is not currently in our roadmap but we are tracking all the feature requests so that we can prioritize them in the future.
Have you tried installing Ubuntu on your Chromebook? (https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/install-ubuntu-on-chromebook#1-overview).

[andrewthetechie]

@andreacndn That's unfortunate to hear. Consider this a feature request - Synergy on ChromeOS would be great!

I have a Pixelbook, which has issues when running Ubuntu natively. I also like ChromeOS and don't really want to replace it with something else.

I'll continue to investigate other solutions and if I come up with something workable, will add it here for others like me who are in the same spot.

[PrismFlux]

+1

[jayblingham]

I'll throw my vote in for a ChromeOS port. I love my Chromebook, but I can't bring it into my every day workflow because Synergy doesn't run natively. Yes, I know there are work-arounds, but frankly I'm getting to that age where I'm looking for things to "just work" :) If this does become a thing, I'd be very happy to volunteer to test and provide feedback.

[andreacndn]

Thank you @jayblingham, appreciate it. We'll keep you posted!