[vfio-users] VM loses mouse

[Christopher Thompson]

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