If you are using Synergy in your daily work, you may have noticed that the Linux client is not working as it should. A bug (Bug #194029) reported to the Ubuntu development team provides extensive reports about the problem and possible resolutions. The biggest problem is sifting through all of them, as well as the realization that they don’t seem to have it fixed yet.
Admittedly, my problems are with Fedora 9 and Windowmaker (which shows that its not Ubuntu-specific, nor is it specific to GNOME or KDE). However, the resolutions seem to work under Fedora just as well as under Ubuntu.
The resolutions recommended are:
- Run synergy as root:
sudo synergyc. This resolution seems to be one least likely to work. - Run synergy with the highest priority possible using chrt:
chrt -p 99 synergyc. This method can be incorporated into a startup script thusly:/usr/bin/synergyc myserver; pgrep synergyc | sudo xargs chrt -p 99 - Recompiling the Linux kernel with a different scheduler: instead of configuring with CONFIG_FAIR_USER_SCHED use CONFIG_FAIR_CGROUP_SCHED.
- Patching synergyc to fix the problem.
- Enabling (for Ubuntu only) the hardy-proposed repository and updating the kernel to 2.6.24-16 or 2.6.24-17-generic seemed to work (although there were complaints that the desktop became sluggish).
In the case of Fedora 9 at least, this bug remains present even though it is almost a year old. I don’t use synergyc on a Ubuntu client – my Kubuntu host I use almost entirely at the console directly.
So what is the answer? I’d try using chrt first (for me that lessened the problem dramatically) and try upgrading to a new kernel configuration.
UNIX Administratosphere 
SOLVED! Thank You!
I’ve been Googling for a week trying to find a solution to the Synergy Copy and Paste Bug that works on my setup.
The chrt priority change is what did it.
Though this is apparently documented elsewhere, your site succinctly presents the solution in a way that Google seems to rank higher.
I’m running WinXP SP2 on a Toshiba laptop as my Synergy server (synergys) and several (X)ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) boxes.
Since upgrading the O/S, I’ve been mostly unable to copy and paste between machines. I’ve also noticed the delay problem but that is less troublesome for me.
I’ve added the code to my startup script that is called from /etc/gdm/Init/Default (for logins) and /etc/gdm/PreSession/Default (for the actual session).
WARNING: do not allow sudo to run xargs without a password!!!
that would allow the user to run ANY program as root!!!!
Better to have xargs run sudo on chrt – much safer
pgrep synergyc | xargs sudo chrt -p 99
However if synergyc is not running a root the sudo is NOT needed at all!
As mentioned running as root does not really solve problems anyway!
What I do is have GDM run a synergyc as itself, for the login duration,
then kill it before the user session runs. The user session then runs a new
synergyc as the user. This works very well.
Well-spotted! Much safer indeed…