I kept having an issue where the shift key would become stuck regardless of the settings I set for the client or server. The halfDuplexCapsLock configuration option had no effect. After installing xkeycaps, I found that both shift keys were getting stuck if I brought the mouse back and forth between Mac and Fedora twice.

I decided to run a test. I started the client with the debug argument and moved the mouse to my Fedora box. At that point, I pressed the letter 'a' and saw:

DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   032 (00000000) up
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   03e (00000000) up
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) down
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   032 (00000000) down
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   03e (00000000) down
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) up

I brought the mouse back to the Mac and then back to Fedora. I pressed 'a' again and saw:

DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) down
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) up
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) down
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) up

After dumping the keyboard layout with xmodmap I found the keys that corresponded with the key numbers:

• 032 - Left shift
• 03e - Right shift
• 026 - a

If I tapped the left shift, I could clear the key press, but I couldn't clear the right shift key (it was stuck down according to Fedora's X server). When I hooked up a physical keyboard and mouse, I was able to use them normally without any keybinding problems.

The root cause: When synergy started in /etc/gdm/PreSession/Default after the gdm login, the keyboard layout wasn't set up properly. The X server was setting up the keyboard layout later in the startup process and this confusion caused the shift keys to get stuck. Fedora 12 uses evdev to probe for keyboards during X's startup and eventually settles on a default layout if none are explicitly defined.

The fix: I added the synergy startup to the GNOME startup items and it works flawlessly.

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At work, I have a Mac Mini as my main workstation with one monitor. There's another monitor to the right which is connected to my Linux box. I run a synergy server on the Mac, and I run a synergy client in Linux. However, I was getting pretty frustrated when I'd have to manually start the synergy client on the Linux box with another keyboard.

After a bit of Google searching, I found a solution that will enable synergy at the GDM login as well as after the login (when the window manager starts). Here's the process:

Open /etc/gdm/Init/Default in your editor of choice and go to the bottom of the file. Just before exit 0, add the following:

/usr/bin/killall synergyc
sleep 1
/usr/bin/synergyc 111.222.333.444

Next, you can create the /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default file as an empty file, or you can copy over the template file from /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default.sample to /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default. Either way, add the following to that file:

/usr/bin/killall synergyc
sleep 1

Finally, edit the /etc/gdm/Presession/Default file and add in the following before exit 0:

/usr/bin/killall synergyc
sleep 1
/usr/bin/synergyc 111.222.333.444

Once that's done, you can log out and log back in to see the changes. You can also reboot your Linux desktop or switch to runlevel 3 and back to 5 (if your OS supports runlevel changes).

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