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LaunchDaemon Help

S

spacebiscuit

macrumors member
Original poster
I'm trying to run a keyboard/mouse client application run on my iMac which has just had a fresh install Sequoia via OpenCore patcher. Previously I was running Monterey and the application run - allowing me to use my shared keyboard and mouse to logon to the Mac.

I've tried creating a LaunchDaemon, I created a plist file which I have saved in /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.foobar.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.symless.synergy</string>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<true/>
<key>UserName</key>
<string>root</string>
<key>GroupName</key>
<string>wheel</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergyc</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>

I've changed ownership of the synergyc application to root/wheel. But when i reboot the service is not running.

Am I doing anything obviously wrong?
 
I get:

Load failed: 5: Input/output error
Try running `launchctl bootstrap` as root for richer errors.
 
Give Full Disk Access to Terminal and try again. If it still doesn't work, try:
Code: 
sudo launchctl bootstrap system /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.foobar.plist
 
the load command returns:

Load failed: 5: Input/output error
Try running `launchctl bootstrap` as root for richer errors.

I then gave full disk access to terminal and the bootstrap command gives:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.foobar.com

Load failed: 5: Input/output error
Try running `launchctl bootstrap` as root for richer errors.
 
As requested thanks!
 

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so, just to be clear, the application works fine if you manually launch it, but fails when you try to launch it at boot?
 
Yes that is correct, it is a keyboard and mouse sharing client, at present I have to login via a plugged in keyboard, once logged in th application starts automatically and I am able to use the shared peripherals.

Also to highlight that I installed the OS via opencore patcher since my iMac is a 2011 model.
 
That can happen when the plist text is not encoded in UTF-8 and it causes hidden characters in the whitespace of the plist file. Try making sure the encoding is correct or just ask AI to output it in UTF-8 with no special characters in the whitespace.
 
I opened the file in cursor and asked the agent to output the file as suggested, I resaved the output but the result is the same.

The original file was created using vim in terminal.
 
Run

plutil -lint /path/to/your/plist

to check the syntax. I made a test file using your output and got an OK message. If you get anything other than OK, it's an encoding problem.
 
Tested and working in 15.4:
Launch daemon
Code: 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.symless.synergy3</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>/Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergy-service</string>
            <string>-d</string>
        </array>
        <key>KeepAlive</key>
        <dict>
          <key>SuccessfulExit</key>
          <false/>
        </dict>
        <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
        <string>/Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/</string>
        <key>StandardOutPath</key>
        <string>//Users/admin/Library/Logs/Synergy/com.symless.synergy3.log</string>
        <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
        <string>//Users/admin/Library/Logs/Synergy/com.symless.synergy3_error.log</string>
    </dict>
</plist>

Change admin to your user name, place com.symless.synergy3.plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons/ and run:
Code: 
sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.symless.synergy3.plist

The daemon should appear in Settings - General - Login Items - Allow in the Background as Symless Ltd - 1 item affects all users.

If you have com.symless.synergy3.plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents, delete it.
 
Sorry still no dice.

I created the file per previous post in /Library/LaunchDaemons/ - then chown root/wheel

The commands:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.symless.synergy3.plist
Load failed: 5: Input/output error
Try running `launchctl bootstrap` as root for richer errors.

sudo launchctl bootstrap system /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.symless.synergy3.plist
Bootstrap failed: 5: Input/output error

I can see Synergy is listed under login items, and in "allow in background"/

By the way in my Synergy folder I have:

synergy
synergy-core
synergyc
synergys
syntool

I don't have "synergy-service" per the recommended plist in previous post. I did try 'synergy' and 'synergys'

Remember I need this to run before or at login, not after login.
 
I understand now, you are referring to https://github.com/DEAKSoftware/Synergy-Binaries that is no longer maintained.

You should use the new https://github.com/deskflow/deskflow “Deskflow is a free and open source keyboard and mouse sharing app.”
The service part of Deskflow, that can be run as a daemon, is /Applications/Deskflow.app/Contents/MacOS/deskflow-server
Run /Applications/Deskflow.app/Contents/MacOS/deskflow-server -h in Terminal to see the options and the important note: “If no configuration file pathname is provided then the first of the following to load successfully sets the configuration: settings/Deskflow
/Users/admin/Library/Deskflow/Deskflow.conf
/Library/Deskflow/Deskflow.conf”

The daemon plist for Deskflow (deskflow-server.plist) should look something like this
Code: 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>deskflow-server</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Applications/Deskflow.app/Contents/MacOS/deskflow-server</string>
        <string>--daemon</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

To install it, copy the plist into /Library/LaunchDaemons/ and run
Code: 
sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/deskflow-server.plist

If you insist on using Synergy 1.14.6, the service part of that app is /Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergys

Again, run /Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergys -h in Terminal to see the requirement:
“If no configuration file pathname is provided then the first of the following to load successfully sets the configuration: /Users/admin/.synergy.conf
/etc/synergy.conf”

The daemon plist synergys.plist
Code: 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>synergys</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergys</string>
        <string>--daemon</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

To install it, copy the plist into /Library/LaunchDaemons/ and run

Code: 
sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/synergys.plist
 
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Thanks - I will try deskflow-server, but for now I am trying with the version of synergy that I have currently.

The issue appears to be the service rather than my plist file. If I use the following command:

/Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergys --address 192.168.0.13:24800

Synergy does not start - no errors are reported. 192.158.0.13 is the IP address of the iMac's wifi adapter. I laos tried without the --address parameter. I've also saved a configuration file: /Users/foo/.synergy.conf
 
I’m sorry, I think you were correct. The Synergy version you are using has different binaries for server and client.

So, /Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergyc is the correct one.

Try to run

Code: 
sudo /Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergyc --address=192.158.0.13

or to see the errors

Code: 
sudo /Applications/Synergy.app/Contents/MacOS/synergyc --debug ERROR --address=192.158.0.13

Make sure Synergy and Terminal have Accessibility and Local Network permissions enabled.
 
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