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Controlling 2 Macs with one keyboard and one mouse
- Thread starter 1brajesh
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As far as I am aware, you would have to re-pair the keyboard and mouse to the Sierra Mac after using it with the Catalina Mac (or vice versa). If I am wrong with that, someone please correct me.
So the easy, Apple endorsed solution requires macOS Monterey which is not released yet.
Other solutions would require a KVM switch (Keyboard, Video, Mouse). It allows you to plug devices into the switch and computers into the switch and toggle which receives the signals.
There may also be software solutions from third parties but I know of none that are explicitly compatible with these peripherals
Other solutions would require a KVM switch (Keyboard, Video, Mouse). It allows you to plug devices into the switch and computers into the switch and toggle which receives the signals.
There may also be software solutions from third parties but I know of none that are explicitly compatible with these peripherals
Synergy - Share one mouse & keyboard across computers
Synergy is an app that shares one mouse and one keyboard across multiple computers and monitors. Instant download, easy to setup in minutes.
symless.com
I didn't know there was software to handle that kind of task. It appears I am not as Apple nerdy as I thought I was.Synergy - Share one mouse & keyboard across computers
Synergy is an app that shares one mouse and one keyboard across multiple computers and monitors. Instant download, easy to setup in minutes.
Logitech IIRC also has one which is the only one I knew of. But it only works with their peripherals I think. Though it does also add drag-n-drop across computers just like Apple's own Universal Controller
Though some reviews have claimed dodgy reliability
Thanks @theluggage. It seems they don't support Sierra?Synergy - Share one mouse & keyboard across computers
Synergy is an app that shares one mouse and one keyboard across multiple computers and monitors. Instant download, easy to setup in minutes.
Hmm. Symless sell a nice GUI version which is well worth it... but the original open-source version might still be around.
If you buy the commercial version for the Catalina machine, the easiest hack seems to be:
- Install Synergy on the Catalina Mac and configure it as a server
On the Sierra Mac:
- download and install the 10.13 version on the Sierra Mac. You can install it, but the app won't run
- open a terminal
- Enter the command /Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergyc -f name_or_IP_of_catalina_mac
- Should connect - you may need to add a "client" definition with the correct name
...you could, of course, do the last two steps over a SSH connection from the Catalina Mac if you wanted to connect without having to plug in a keyboard. Or use something like Mongoose to create an App that you could add to your startup items. Or write a launchd script, etc.
Also, the old open source version is still on MacPorts (https://www.macports.org/) - if you're up for the faff of installing MacPorts (which also involves installing XCode) you can install synergy with:
port install synergy
...after which the command to connect it to the server is just:
synergyc name_or_IP_of_catalina_mac
You can also use the MacPorts version to run a server, but you'll have to write a text-based config file. You can google for instructions.
I tried HomeBrew (which is sometimes friendlier than MacPorts) but it rather unhelpfully just downloads a non-Sierra-compatible binary of the GUI App.
It's a pity that Symless couldn't have provided better support for older versions of MacOS - keeping old Macs going to run legacy software is a major use for synergy.
Thanks so much.
I wrote to their support and they mailed me a legacy version that works with Sierra
