How to type on a virtual screen via a physical keyboard?

[Relictrix]

Hi all,

What I am looking for is a method to view the screen of another machine via VNC,X11 Forwarding or other method but I want to type on that screen with a keyboard that is physically attached to the machine.

Here the setup:
Machine 1 with screen1 (and keyboard1)
Machine 2 without screen2 and keyboard2

Machine 1 can view the screen of machine 2 via VNC/X11 Forwarding. But I want that when typing on keyboard2, that I see what i type on screen1 of machine1.

I wonder if that possible?

Thanks in advance,

Best Regards,

 

[Voltaire]

I think your question is answered here:

Remote connection to locally running X session

One of the good (few) features windows has is it's RDP protocol implementation. This wonder allows me to work with my 2 screen setup in the office, then drive home, open a VPN connection followed b...

serverfault.com

Yes, the Xorg module allows you to share your :0 (local) display. In /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the "Module" section add
Load "vnc"
and in the "Screen" section add:
Option "SecurityTypes" "VncAuth"
Option "UserPasswdVerifier" "VncAuth"
Option "PasswordFile" "/root/.vnc/passwd"
Do explore other options for "UserPasswdVerifier." The VNC server will listening on tcp port 5900. Even using a VPN I would not directly connect to the port. Block all non-localhost access and use an SSH tunnel.

It seems that you can log into a local session with the correct settings in xorg.conf

vncviewer

−Shared When you make a connection to a VNC server, all other existing connections are normally closed. This option requests that they be left open, allowing you to share the desktop with someone already using it.
−ViewOnly Specifies that no keyboard or mouse events should be sent to the server. Useful if you want to view a desktop without interfering; often needs to be combined with −Shared.

Maybe also try x2go: https://www.freshports.org/net/x2goclient/

On Linux you have some other tools but I don't know if they are compatible with FreeBSD.

NOMACHINE:

NoMachine - Free Remote Desktop for Everybody

www.nomachine.com

FreshPorts -- net/linux-nx-client: The NoMachine NX client

NoMachine NX is a X Window, RDP and RFB compression protocol allowing thin clients to remotely access desktops running NX Server over slow links. This port provides NoMachine NX Client, which can access KDE, GNOME, Microsoft RDP, Citrix ICA and VNC desktops remotely. WWW: http://www.nomachine.com/

www.freshports.org

Guest desktop sharing
Remote desktop sharing with your peers is easy. Authorize guests to connect to your desktop in view or interactive mode.

You also have FreeNX on Linux https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/FreeNX

 

[Relictrix]

Hi Voltaire,

Thanks for your reply.

This might work, thanks for sharing, I will try it soon and then switch this thread to resolved. Sharing of screen 0 seems to most logical way.

Best Regards,