[vfio-users] Virtual USB Keyboard and Mouse for guest?

[Jonathan Scruggs]

Hi all,

This is an idea I had that would be really cool if possible. If it is, you
may want to somehow build it into VirtManager or something.

Currently, I have a Windows guest using Synergy, but somethings Windows has
popups that disable Synergy and only a real mouse would work. Also, you
can't update Synergy while using Synergy. My solution which is better than
Synergy and solves these issues:

Would it be possible to have the real mouse and keyboard that is plugged
into the host to be (this is where I struggle for the right words)
duplicated/virtualized/emulated so that they can be passed through to the
guest as a USB device and used on the host system as well. There would be a
program that listens for a certain key combination that would switch the
control to either the VM or host. Then windows would think it has a real
USB keyboard and mouse rather than Synergy. This is especially useful when
there is a dedicated graphics card passed through.

This seems like something that VirtManger can have built in, like select an
option to do this and it would switch the inputs between the systems. The
only thing is, is that the mouse and keyboard would still need to be
visible to the guest/host just no movements/keystrokes being sent. Also,
calling external programs, like those that can switch monitor inputs should
be added to this.

This will lose the clipboard sharing and other features of Synergy, but I
don't use those anyways, and this would be a lot more stable and better for
the guests.

Does this make sense?

Thanks,
Jon
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