Debian Package a Day's Journal

x2vnc - A dual-screen hack - link a MS-Windows and X display

This program merges the capabilities of x2x and vncviewer. It will allow a machine with an X display and a machine with a VNC server running on it's main screen to act as if they were two displays connected to one machine. When you move your mouse pointer off the screen in a direction of your choosing, the pointer will appear on the other screen instead.

Today's package recommendation comes to us by way of

crazyscot (prompted by the posting about x11vnc).

x2vnc is a wonderful remote-control hack. It creates a magic invisible window along one edge of your X display; when you move the mouse into it, it seamlessly appears on the remote system by VNC - and keyboard focus goes with it, naturally.

I use x2vnc at work all the time to control my secondary (Windows) machine - whose monitor is beside my main monitor - using the keyboard and mouse on my Debian box. It's marvellous; I don't need to keep the second machine's keyboard and mouse on my desk, but I am looking directly at that machine's monitor. I am not cluttering up my X display with vncviewer windows, nor am I getting the juddering and other display update glitches you typically get from VNC.

A really neat bonus is that it does the Right Thing with the cut+paste buffer between the two displays, in most cases. (I wish it worked on my phone too :) )

More information on this package can be found on the Debian web site.
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