[vfio-users] VM loses mouse

[Christopher Thompson]

Ah I see the owners made the actual builds paid-for now, kindof crappy, but the source is still free.

Someone else maintains some builds:

https://github.com/afzaalace/synergy-stable-builds -> http://www.afzaalace.com/synergy-stable-builds/ 

On linux you might well be able to apt-get or yum install synergy too.

Cheers,
Chris

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher Thompson [mailto:chrisct at synopsys.com]
> Sent: 25 April 2017 13:10
> To: Patrick O'Callaghan <poc at usb.ve>; Christopher Thompson
> <Chris.Thompson1 at synopsys.com>; Daimon Wang
> <daimon_swang at yahoo.com>; vfio-users at redhat.com
> Subject: RE: [vfio-users] VM loses mouse
> 
> Synergy is free, no need for a trial:
> 
> https://github.com/symless/synergy/wiki/User-Guide
> 
> And yes I was suggesting you use it in parallel with the hardware HDMI
> switch, just click the HDMI switch and drag your mouse across to the
> currently "active" system.
> 
> Cheers,
> Chris
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Patrick O'Callaghan [mailto:poc at usb.ve]
> > Sent: 25 April 2017 13:06
> > To: Christopher Thompson <Chris.Thompson1 at synopsys.com>; Daimon
> Wang
> > <daimon_swang at yahoo.com>; vfio-users at redhat.com
> > Subject: Re: [vfio-users] VM loses mouse
> >
> > On Tue, 2017-04-25 at 11:45 +0000, Christopher Thompson wrote:
> > > This sounds like the PS/2 driver/emulated hardware controller gets
> > > itself in
> > knots. PS/2 isn't hot plug, so if something goes wrong it's generally
> > stuffed until a reboot, which sounds like your issue.
> >
> > Yes, that would fit with what I'm seeing.
> >
> > > One common option is to use Synergy, which passes the keyboard and
> > mouse over the network, you set up the synergy service running on the
> > Linux host, with it configured to map an edge of the screen to your
> > Windows VM, then when the Windows VM is running and the synergy
> client
> > connects you can move the mouse over that edge of the screen and it
> > will appear on Windows (if you have multiple monitors this looks like
> > the mouse seamlessly goes from one screen to the other).
> > >
> > > Keyboard focus follows whatever system the mouse is active on. To
> > > pass
> > the mouse back just take it back off the same screen edge. The
> > edge->target machine relationship is programmable so you can have all
> > edges go to the same machine, or some go to different machines, etc.
> > >
> > > Not ideal, but maybe this could be an acceptable workaround?
> >
> > I did look at Synergy (not Synchronicity :-) before going for the
> > hardware switch but their website says explicitly that it's not
> > capable of switching displays, i.e. is not a kb/mouse/video
> > substitute. The focus seems to be on sharing kb/mouse between multiple
> hosts, each with its own display.
> > However I can see it may be possible to set it up the way I want and
> > combine with the HDMI switch as host and guest each think they have
> > their own display. I'd be more inclined to try it if there was a trial
> > version, but there doesn't seem to be.
> >
> > > It's probably also worth someone investigating the PS/2 code in
> > KVM/QEMU, if you feel like compiling it yourself then you could
> > investigate yourself where the mouse gets dropped.
> >
> > Something to think about I guess ...
> >
> > poc