How does this differ to Synergy? It looks like a direct copy. Is it encrypted by default? Synergy is not encrypted for the free version.
Also, does it work well with the server being either Windows or linux? Syngergy can be quite ropey.
Is it open source?

It is an open source fork of Synergy, the encryption is enabled by default here.
I’ve not tried it with the server on Linux
Yes it’s open source:
https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/

I presume the Barrier people added the encryption bit then. Nice. Free as in free beer.

> Free as in free beer.
According to the LICENSE file on Github it’s GPL v2. So it’s actually free as in speech and not as in free beer. ;)

This work looks great, but it is ok if you can see both computers on the same network. I have a USB connector (OEM) to do this at the mo, as one PC runs a VPN, and most VPNs block local network access (eg 192.*) to prevent network bridging.

What am I missing here? I have multiple screens and usually dedicate one to a VNC session on my RPi when I’m coding.

I’ve been using Barrier for a few weeks and find it works perfectly. One thing to be aware of is the Print Screen key disables barrier and locks the keyboard and mouse to the currently active screen, pressing again resumes normal operation.

Gordon, I have run Synergy server on a Pi and on a PC Linux box with Mint and it works very well. The only problem I have ever had with Synergy is getting Windoze clients to connect automatically. This is presumably due to having a password protected login set up on the Windoze clients.

@Jerry – the way I’ve been using Synergy (of which Barrier is a fork) for years is to use one keyboard/mouse for multiple computers. So if you had a monitor on your raspberry pi, you wouldn’t need to keep two keyboards on the desk. For instance, I have my Windows work laptop, my Macbook, and my linux desktop. I can move seamlessly between them throughout the day using the same keyboard and mouse, sharing clipboard contents.

Jerry, it sounds like you have multiple monitors on a single PC and connect to another computer over VNC with it’s video output being displayed on your [second] monitor. Synergy (or Barrier) allows your mouse pointer to move off the edge of your screen and onto the screen of another computer on the same network, taking the keyboard and clipboard with it and allowing you direct control of that second (or third, or fourth, etc) computer, whether it is a PC, Windoze box, Mac or Pi.

A word of warning for polyglots: Barrier is fundamentally flawed in that it send over characters (letters you typed) instead of scan codes (which physical key you pressed).
This makes barrier virtually unusable with multiple keyboard layouts.
For example I want to type a 4 on one of the clients with English QWERTY layout. But on the host I have Czech QWERTZ selected. So I press the 4 key, which tries to type č, but since there is not č on an English keyboard it types a c. So I press 4 and get c.
It usually works if you make sure both host and client have the same layout selected, but that’s very tedious and even then it still breaks sometimes for non-english layouts.
It’s a nice concept, but it only works if you’re using English and nothing else.

Just tried with Windows 10 as host.
Appeared to be working well until I tried to type vertical bar on RPi terminal session … and it appeared as greater-than sign.
So – issue with keyboard language.
My Win 10 is configured as UK keyboard – as is my RPi and a directly attached USB keyboard on RPi correctly shows UK keys as typed.
Starting new new terminal session on RPi did not resolve it.

Seems others have similar problems
https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/issues/638

There’s nothing stopping you from connecting a monitor to a Raspi when it’s broadcasting VNC. The way VNC works is by mirroring the display. So, you can always see what’s happening on the other computer. Of course, you then duplicate the screen if you want to work on it. But I prefer that way since I don’t want to crank my neck sideways for too long, anyway.
Still, more options is better since everyone works differently. Thank you for posting.

Interesting…. Unfortunately, I don’t have room for a second (let alone third, fourth, fifth…) monitor on my desk. So it’s KVM switches for me. I got my first one over 20 years ago and have never looked back.

What GTK theme is the Pi using? It’s nice!

I developed this similar system in 2016 that works with computers using X: https://github.com/mobluse/x2x
It uses x2x.

Jerry,
The main thing you’re missing is latency free, realtime graphics.

Does this work with dual monitors?

I have 6 pi screens that I switch back and forth and would like get this running. I did the apt install and it is in my accessories folder. I call it up and get the main box. click on Client (I have already got it installed on my mac). I click on apply then nothing happens! Also tried to get the tarball and build it, but it says that I dont have access rights to the remote repository.

My Pis generally run web apps on Raspbian Lite, so command line interface only, SSH is all I need.
But this looks interesting for some of our office Pis that have big screen displaying infrastructure status.

@Adrian and @Mark, I just realized I did not read the explanation of Barrier very well – now I get it. This code allows the use of a single KBD/Mouse across multiple computers. However, they each connect to a dedicated monitor. Think I’ll stick with my VNC solution since it allows me to drag my RPi desktop over to my main screen when I want it front and center.

I’ve been using Synergy for a few months and love it. I have a windows 10 tablet as the client, I just use for Spotify, notes, a task listet and have it positioned under my monitor.

Does it work between a laptop screen and a monitor?

I remember doing something similar more than a dozen years ago.

vnc server on the keyboard/mouesless machine combined with a vnc client on the main machine that didn’t display the remote machine but detected the pointer moving off the local screen then sent keyboard/mouse input to the vnc server.

Worked fine unless the vnc server crashed when the client had grabbed the pointer and keyboard. Hopefully Barrier (and synergy) have fixed that type of issue.

What are it’s technical requirements?
By example, does the Server’s processor or RAM impact it’s capabilities?
If I were to use a Raspberry Pi 4 as a server, because it supports two monitors, would there be any advantage in using a Pi with more RAM?

This is very appreciated and so easy to set up! Thanks!

How would you set barrier to starting automatically after login in raspbian?
I have googled and only found how to run python programs after booting. There must be a simpler way to set this as in other OS.

You could put the command to start barrier into /etc/rc.local, with an ampersand (&) at the end.

Cheers,
Norm.

Doing a sudo apt install barrier gives me the Unable to locate package barrier error on raspberry pi

@Mario,
It took me a while to figure out how to get Barrier to autostart.
Firstly make sure that your barrier connection is working and then exit Barrier (Barrier > Quit), this saves the current settings.
In the file /home/pi/.profile add this to the end of the file
barrier &
Save and restart.
Ste

@Ron,
You’ll most likely have to upgrade your Raspbian to Buster.

I managed to get this working on my Pi 4 using my WIndows 10 laptop as the server. I had to use the workaround in https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/issues/134 to get the keyboard layout on the Pi correct – without that it gave me a US keyboard layout – both Pi and laptop set to UK keyboard layout already (including system locale on Windows 10).

I really appreciate video tutorials like these. :) Very helpful.

could not have expected this to be possible, never thought of this. lol

Nice Thing. Works great for me. But i would like to see a version for Android too. I’m using Samsung Dex for some applications for work (MS Office, Outlook etc.) cause i don’t use Windows anymore. Then i could work with only one keyboard and mouse.

Great program use between my PC and pi4. Please note if you not running windows standard 100% fonts can casue problems with mouse pointer . Also as a gamer I had to turn on “switch on double tap” which means have to hit side of screen 2x fast to switch over.

This looks great. I am fairly new to pi’s and raspian etc. I have tried installing using : ‘sudo apt install barrier’ after ‘sudo apt-get update’ and it shows ‘Reading package lists… Done ; Building dependency tree; Reading state information… Done; E: Unable to locate package barrier.
Im confused as I believe i followed the instructions in the video

Thank you so much. I didnt think this would be possible but now I’ve connected my mouse and keyboard with Laptop and Rpi4. Thanks again!

Thank you so much i was looking this article but now follow your instruction i have done thanks again

Looks very interesting. Might give it a go. Thanks

Thank you, Gordon. It is a great tool and useful video

My Rpi2 2 couldn’t find “Barrier” – I tried twice – first with the sudo prompt. E=”unable to locate package barrier”. I then “sudo apt install github.com/debauchee/barrier/releases. Same result. E=couldn’t find any package by regex ‘github.com/debauchee/barrier’.
What am I doing wrong?

Thanks Gordon, brilliant article for great idea; really helpful as I inevitably attempt to enter commands using the wrong keyboard!
Using information you have provided I have set it up and “sort of” got it working but with some issues, perhaps you can give some pointers of what I am or am not doing correctly. I am using it between a 32bit Linux Mint (19.1) as server and for purpose of testing here an entirely fresh Rasberry OS down loaded onto a RPi3B as client.
Mint Server installs as expected and seems to work fine, customisation is made to indicate it as server with a client of “raspberrypi”.
Barrier install on Raspberry client seems to proceed clean per your instructions however it does not appear in the applications list and the only way I seem to have to initiate it is to type “barrier” into a terminal and this will then bring up the customizations box. From the customizations box, ticking the auto box in client does not do anything helpful, however if I type the server ip address into the client field this is accepted and after confirming identity of server I’m up and running with shared keyboard/mouse. On closing and restarting the RPi none of the configuration is saved and requires it to be restarted from a terminal window.
Clearly I am missing or not doing something, any thoughts appreciated.

This Barrier is brilliant. Thank you

I have my pi connected to a TV and use vnc or x2go when I want to have normal access from another computer (and by the way, my preference is x2go to a MATE session which is not connected to a physical screen). I was hoping to be able to use my laptop as the controlling keyboard with barrier when running Kodi as a media player on the pi with output to the TV, though. This works with Plex and most other programs but Kodi seems tied to the physical keyboard (doesn’t work with VNC either). Does anyone know a way around this?

I want a fresh windows install so I can install bonjour. Now when I uninstall and reinstall it doesn’t ask me the fresh install questions.

I installed Barrier on Windows 10, but in Log it keeps saying:
“barriers.exe: no configuration available”
Tryed to save configuration in other file, bu it’s the same…

What can I do?