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Use a software-only keyboard/mouse 'switchbox'
Authored by: srsr on Feb 18, '04 12:41:00PM

The osx2x v2 is also capable of VNC.
I'm using osx2x in a 3-5 system environment with MacOS X, Linux/X/KDE, BSD/X/KDE-or-Windowmaker and Windows.

Normally I've a Debian GNU/Linux Workstation/Server with X 4 and KDE 3 sitting left next to a dual-screen setup on a G5 and right to that is a PC Notebook running Debian or Windows.

With osx2x I can use all 4 screens on three different operating Systems with the keyboard and the mouse on the mac. I can run with the mouse from east to west and west to east through all 4 monitors/screens.

On the Debian Desktop I'm running x0rfbserver which exports the current X11 Display to VNC, on Windows I'm running VNCServer.
osx2x is running on the G5 in the center of course.

For a test setup I also connected a FreeBSD machine with X 4 and KDE 3, running the native KDE krfb server and an OpenBSD with X 4 and Windowmaker machine just exporting X via xhost. So I could control 6 screens/monitors on 5 machines with 5 different operating System und 5 different X/VNX access methods with one mouse and one keyboard. Mouse directions seen from the center G5 are in that case: west (Debian), north (FreeBSD), east (Windows), south (OpenBSD). However the KDE-native krfb and the xhost export do not work as well, as x0rfbserver and Windows' VNCServer.



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Use a software-only keyboard/mouse 'switchbox'
Authored by: Argent on Feb 18, '04 12:50:04PM

Wow! That sounds really amazing! Do you have a picture of your setup?



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Use a software-only keyboard/mouse 'switchbox'
Authored by: grossman on Feb 18, '04 12:54:35PM

Wow, both of these apps are so cool! Teleport is ultra-simple to set up, and osx2x looks powerful, although harder to configure. I have been looking for a solution to this for a long time. Thanks! What I really do want, though, is a way to use the monitor on the second computer as a 2nd monitor for the main computer, while still letting the "slave computer" run (as a webserver, etc.). It doesn't seem like anybody has solved that problem yet.



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Use a software-only keyboard/mouse 'switchbox'
Authored by: srsr on Feb 18, '04 01:10:40PM

The only way that could work which comes to my mind is with X11.
On the master machine you can create two different X displays (:0 and :1 for example). You import :1 now on the slave machine and use x2x to share the mouse between both. However that would not allow a true Dual-Screen setup because just moving a window between these two screens should not be possible. Another drawback is that remote-X can be slow via network, sometimes even Fast Ethernet. On the other hand all applications would run on the master machine and with it's speed, sound, and whatever.

Another solution with X11 would be to run a native X server on the slave and import only some X-Applications from the master via ssh -X forward.
That's the way I use this feature at my workplace sometimes.

As far as I know Aqua and the Windows-GUI are not designed for network transparency and portability (contrary to X11) and thus even VNC can not deliver that service.



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Use a software-only keyboard/mouse 'switchbox'
Authored by: grossman on Feb 20, '04 09:02:32PM

After Teleport got a little buggy on me (it would just stop working for no reason until I went back into the System Prefs pane and started it again...), I started using osx2x, which is awesome, except that the key mappings seem off. The Apple key doesn't work (although when I use a traditional VNC viewer like Chicken of the VNC, it works fine), and some other punctuation keys are wrong (the question mark and vertical line | keys are reversed, for example). Any advice?



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Use a software-only keyboard/mouse 'switchbox'
Authored by: LouieNet on Mar 04, '04 01:33:48PM

I've also run into the same problem with the kep-mapping, especially with the question mark and the vertical bar being reversed. Advice?

---
G4 cube, 1152M RAM, OS X Server 10.2.8
17" Powerbook G4, 1G RAM, OS X 10.2.8



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Use a software-only keyboard/mouse 'switchbox'
Authored by: LouieNet on Feb 24, '04 01:02:12PM
srsr wrote:
on Windows I'm running VNCServer

Thanks! This is working great for me at work!

I do have one question: How do I send a control-alt-delete to my Windows machine from my PowerBook? I tried control-option-delete and fn-control-option-delete. I can't find mention of that on the online doc.

(In contrast, Chicken of the VNC and other VNC viewers normally have a "Send Ctl-Alt-Del" menu option.)

Louie

---
G4 cube, 1152M RAM, OS X Server 10.2.8
17" Powerbook G4, 1G RAM, OS X 10.2.8

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