Share your Computer’s Mouse and Keyboard with your Steam Deck
I use an app called barrier. It allows you to share your mouse and keyboard with multiple devices. I use it, because I tend to have my laptop and Macbook sitting next to my PC, and it makes working across all devices very convenient. It’s a mix of a multi-monitor and multi-computer setup.
Concept
Your device with the peripherals runs in server mode and is aware of the screen configuration of all the devices around you. The other devices connect as clients. When you move the mouse across the screen boundaries, barrier will magically transport the cursor to the respective device, direct your keyboard input there, and share the clipboard between all devices.
Barrier Server Configuration
My main PC (named Battlestation, naturally 😎) is surrounded by other devices. I’ve added the Steam Deck to the right.
Barrier Client Install
I switched the Steam Deck itself to Desktop Mode (hold the power button). Then I used their “app store” (a GUI package manager), and installed the barrier client:
Launching Barrier Client on the Steam Deck
Since I had the mouse and keyboard connected, I tried just pressing the “Windows” (or Meta) key and started typing barrier. Look, nice, proper auto-completion.
Barrier Client Setup
On the first startup, it needs some configuration. Language, and client or server mode.
Connecting the Barrier Client
The client setup is simple, although auto-config doesn’t work in my case. The WiFi is on a different subnet, so I specified the IP of my PC manually.
Hit Start, and it will connect to the barrier server.
The mouse and keyboard are now shared. It’s pretty neat, now I can just move my PC mouse to the right edge of the screen, and it takes over the Steam Deck.
Clipboard Sharing
The cherry on top is that barrier also supports clipboard sharing. So you can copy from and paste to any device easily.
But here’s the rub: You have to press the shortcut native to the device. For example, if you’re on a Macbook, you’d press
CMD+C
to copy, but once the mouse is over on the Steam Deck, you’d have to paste with
CTRL+V
.
Depending on all the computers involved, it can get a bit weird. Okay, I’m on a Macbook with an external Mac keyboard, on a Remote Desktop of a Windows machine, running a Linux VM. Which key do I press to copy to the clipboard? That depends on which device you’re trying to copy data from.
But I digress. Now I can comfortably interact with the Steam Deck as part of my Desktop setup.
Once I found out about the Steam Deck’s Desktop Mode, it got even more interesting. Steam Deck’s Gaming Mode vs Desktop Mode You see, the Steam Deck defaults to an analog of Big Picture mode on PC. It runs full screen in “Steam Deck gaming console” mode. But underneath all that is a Linux system …
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Share your Computer’s Mouse and Keyboard with your Steam Deck
I use an app called barrier. It allows you to share your mouse and keyboard with multiple devices. I use it, because I tend to have my laptop and Macbook sitting next to my PC, and it makes working across all devices very convenient. It’s a mix of a multi-monitor and multi-computer setup.
Concept
Your device with the peripherals runs in server mode and is aware of the screen configuration of all the devices around you. The other devices connect as clients. When you move the mouse across the screen boundaries, barrier will magically transport the cursor to the respective device, direct your keyboard input there, and share the clipboard between all devices.
Barrier Server Configuration
My main PC (named Battlestation, naturally 😎) is surrounded by other devices. I’ve added the Steam Deck to the right.
Barrier Client Install
I switched the Steam Deck itself to Desktop Mode (hold the power button). Then I used their “app store” (a GUI package manager), and installed the barrier client:
Launching Barrier Client on the Steam Deck
Since I had the mouse and keyboard connected, I tried just pressing the “Windows” (or Meta) key and started typing barrier. Look, nice, proper auto-completion.
Barrier Client Setup
On the first startup, it needs some configuration. Language, and client or server mode.
Connecting the Barrier Client
The client setup is simple, although auto-config doesn’t work in my case. The WiFi is on a different subnet, so I specified the IP of my PC manually.
Hit Start, and it will connect to the barrier server.
The mouse and keyboard are now shared. It’s pretty neat, now I can just move my PC mouse to the right edge of the screen, and it takes over the Steam Deck.
Clipboard Sharing
The cherry on top is that barrier also supports clipboard sharing. So you can copy from and paste to any device easily.
But here’s the rub: You have to press the shortcut native to the device. For example, if you’re on a Macbook, you’d press
CMD+Cto copy, but once the mouse is over on the Steam Deck, you’d have to paste withCTRL+V.Depending on all the computers involved, it can get a bit weird. Okay, I’m on a Macbook with an external Mac keyboard, on a Remote Desktop of a Windows machine, running a Linux VM. Which key do I press to copy to the clipboard? That depends on which device you’re trying to copy data from.
But I digress. Now I can comfortably interact with the Steam Deck as part of my Desktop setup.
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