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Sharing keyboard and mouse between FreeBSD and Linux using Barrier.

 ·  🎃 kr0m

There are times when we need to control multiple computers using the same keyboard and mouse. Switching between them is a tedious task, so solutions like Barrier have emerged. Using a client-server model, we can control all systems from a centralized point.

We install the software on the operating system we have.

FreeBSD:

pkg install barrier qt5ct

We indicate the QT theme to use in the rc of our preferred shell:

vi .bashrc

export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct

Gentoo:

We compile avahi with support for mdnsresponder-compat:

vi /etc/portage/package.use/avahi

net-dns/avahi dbus gdbm introspection nls -autoipd -bookmarks -doc -gtk -gtk3 -howl-compat -ipv6 mdnsresponder-compat -mono -python -qt5 -selinux -test
emerge -av net-dns/avahi

We download the barrier source code and compile it:

git clone https://github.com/debauchee/barrier.git
cd barrier
./clean_build.sh
cd build
make install


MASTER:
We start barrier as master:

barrier

SLAVE:
We start barrier as slave:

barrier

MASTER:
We add the slave screen:

We reload both and we should be able to move through both screens.

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