Laggy mouse cursor on macOS clients

[ghost]

We fixed the WiFi lag on macOS in Synergy v1.9.0. Login to our forum using your Synergy account & Download Synergy v1.9.0.

I am running 1.5.1 on Ubuntu (server), Windows 8 and Mac OS X Yosemite clients.

Yesterday I upgraded to Yosemite, and now Synergy really doesn't work on the mac.

The first problem I occurred was that the client on the mac kept disonnecting and connecting. After a reboot this stopped, but now there is a real lag when moving the cursor from Ubuntu to the mac. The mouse freezes on the screen just after a few seconds. Then it either starts working again after a couple of seconds, or I have to move the cursor back to the Ubuntu-machine first.

The log on the client says the server is not responding, and the server-log says the mac is dead. I know there is no network issues as the network works just fine on both the mac and the other computers. And Synergy worked like a charm when running Mavericks.

Any ideas ? :)

[masterpiece91]

I concur that I am experiencing the same problem. It worked like a charm on Mavericks but now on yosemite I am experiencing the same issues as stated above. FYI my setup is : imac (Yosemite) [server] - macbookpro (Yosemite) [client] - pc (windows 7) [client]

NOTE: Synergy is still working very well on my windows 7 machine.

NOTE: I first upgraded my macbook pro and started experiencing the lag. I figured that maybe I needed to upgrade my server as well (imac) so i went ahead and upgraded my server to Yosemite. The issue is still the same.

[ghost]

Since I wrote the first comment I have also experienced that Synergy uses huge amounts of CPU, upwards to 140 %.

Now I also experience that Synergy uses huge amounts of CPU :( Upwards to 140 % according to the activity monitor.

Do you also experience this?

[CarlosLabrado]

Same problem here, is really laggy or unresponsive on Yosemite

[sheavner]

Seeing bad mouse lag on OSX Yosemite 10.10, keyboard seems ok, but I'm probably not sending many events/second.

Synergy 1.5.0 : Win 7 server | OSX 10.10 client.

[bitbocs]

I also experience mouse lag but also I cannot lowercase t, although I can type uppercase T.

I've checked with keycodes what code is received by mac and the code is the same for letter y; either I pressed y or t the code is the same. This is very annoying.

Synergy 1.6.1: Fedora 20 server | OSX 10.10 client.

I've tried with the server installed on Windows 8.1 and the behaviour is the same - letter t is sent as y on client. With the server on Fedora 20 and client on Ubuntu I can type correctly letter t.

[ghost]

UPDATE: this now works on my machine.

Resolution: using cabled network instead of wireless.

So if the rest of you are using a wireless connection, try using cable.

Thanks to the Synergy helpdesk helping me by email.

[ghost]

Using Cable and yosemite on 2 macs. I'm not sure it's synergy that is the problem.. I notice though that when any network or CPU activity hits, the mouse lags on the client. It may be related to the accessibility code which I believe has changed. I'm also getting the Bluetooth lag on the MBP (client) so this whole issue may be related to the network stack. This is oh so helpful I'm sure..

[130s]

@AudunS's workaround worked for me too.

But I'm not sure...My Yosemite lagged for every few seconds even from the keyboard on its own, but as soon as I quit Synergy Mac works smoothly. From this my amateur guess is that over wifi there might have queue of unprocessed messages that even affected the usage without Synergy.

[TinLe]

OSX: 10.10.1 Yosemite (synergy client) RHEL 6.4 x86_64 (synergy server) Synergy: 1.6.2

Ever since I updated to 1.6.2, the mouse lag btw my macbook and linux desktop is very noticable. Another issue is that the mouse move, but the keyboard stop working in OSX. Restarting synergy on OSX fixes the keyboard problem, but it comes by sometime later.

I can live with keyboard requiring restart, but the mouse lag is very frustrating. Sometime the mouse freezes when in OSX display. I have to do something like Command+tab, or move the mouse on OSX via touchpad, then it unfreezes.

[TinLe]

@AudunS I agree about using wired connection helps on Yosemite. The wireless network stack in Yosemite is very finicky. Upgrading to 10.10.1 helped reduce the issues, but I still occasional wireless problems. FYI, 10.10.2 is out with more fixes. I will be trying to soon.

Just a note though, that even with using my Thunderbolt to Ether adapter, I still see occasional loss of keyboard on my macbook, mouse still works but typing does not.

[natebrunette]

Is a solution being looked into for those of us who can't use a wired connection?

[markwu]

I have the same issue on Yosemite. The keyboard works fine, but mouse lag is very frustrating. I just pay for this app several weeks ago, wish this issue could be resolved asap. Thanks.

[gr0g]

+1

[beporter]

Given the widespread reports of WiFi issues in Yosemite, this seems like Apple's problem and not Synergy's. After all, it's not Synergy's responsibility to fix broken wifi in an Apple operating system release.

I realize it's far too late for many people in this thread, but in the future it's fairly easy to be more cautious about upgrading your system if you have mission critical software you depend on. It's not outrageously difficult to plan ahead and make a clone of your computer using SuperDuper (or similar) before upgrading, so that you can downgrade back to a stable system if issues arise.

[treyturner]

Happens to me also. This does burn more after getting pressured into supporting the project financially. Win7 server and Yosemite client is my only use case, though I realize it is only one of several for the project.

I see the CPU spike on my Macbook and have no reason to believe it has to do with Yosemite's wireless stack specifically, which is otherwise performing without issue for me on latency and throughput tests.

Besides, once the mouse gets moving, I can move it around and around endlessly without issue - the problem (in my case at least) manifests after stopping mouse movement for a second or two. When I try to resume movement, the Mac cursor "sticks" and won't take updates for another second or two, after which it jumps a short distance across the screen. This seems to be the case even when my cursor has not left my Macbook screen.

I'd certainly appreciate any attention that could be paid to this issue; thanks for hearing me out.

[jcromartie]

Same problems here. Using Synergy 1.6.2, OS X Yosemite client, Win 8.1 server. Sometimes keys "buffer" for up to 4 seconds or so, before coming across. The network has no issues with throughput or latency in other cases.

[abeldantas]

I have purchased synergy, I have the server on a mac and the client is windows, when the mouse goes into the client it gets awfully jumpy. Unfortunately I need Yosemite specifically and downgrading to Mavericks isn't an option. Wired connection does no difference.

I'm very unhappy with this, it's really affecting my quality of life.

[TinLe]

Update.

Linux RHEL 6.4 x86_64 (synergy server) OSX Yosemite 10.10.2 (official release) (synergy client)

With 10.10.2 update, wifi connection seem to work better over Synergy. Lags is usually due to our Wifi network have too many users. I notice too that when my Linux desktop is busy (high I/O wait) or similar for my macbook, then the lag get very bad.

Changing to wired dongle works much better, still.

So there is some hope that Apple is making fixes and Yosemite is getting more stable with Wifi. I know 10.10.3 is being tested now.... sigh, Apple. Maybe we should get some of their OSX engineers to use Synergy daily. This may get fixed faster ;-).

[spronkey]

I'm also getting this problem. Seems to be worse on 5GHz Wifi vs 2.4GHz. What happens to me is the "buffer" - after inactivity (i.e. not moving the mouse) it will take a second or so after moving the mouse before the cursor starts moving on the client machine.

Basically exactly as described by @treyturner

Almost seems like a sleep/wake kinda problem?

[furlongm]

@nbolton I don't think this is just limited to Linux server.

I'm seeing the same issue with Windows 8.1 server and OS X 10.10 client, both with synergy 1.6.2.

[spronkey]

@nbolton @furlongm can confirm. Windows 7 server and OS X 10.10 client here, have issue.

[nbolton]

Related to #4228?

[spronkey]

I don't seem to get any CPU spiking for this particular issue on OS X client - just a regular persistent lag - very much feels like buffering.

[nbolton]

2014 MacBook Air client.

When the mouse lags its more of a jitter/skip/jump for about 10 seconds, then returns to normal/smooth for maybe 20 seconds then repeats, back and forth between smooth and jittery. Does anyone else see the same behavior?

I'm not seeing particularly high CPU usage either.

[nbolton]

So I'm pretty sure my issue is a network issue. When the cursor is jittery, my ping spikes to ~100ms (where it's normally ~1ms)... This happens when synergyc is not doing anything.

PING obiwan.home (192.168.0.11): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.0.11: icmp_seq=0 ttl=128 time=1.166 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.11: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=2.083 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.11: icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=94.976 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.11: icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=70.593 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.11: icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=19.603 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.11: icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=1.406 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.11: icmp_seq=6 ttl=128 time=1.285 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.11: icmp_seq=7 ttl=128 time=1.341 ms

[TinLe]

There are at least two causes for the laggy cursor and keyboard loss.

1. Network. I see this the most with WiFi on OSX Yosemite.
2. I/O interrupts and/or CPU load on the Linux side (probably also on other OS, but I only use Linux and OSX).

[nbolton]

@TinLe Pretty sure mine is number 1 (I bought a thunderbolt ethernet adapter and I don't see the lag now).

For the CPU issue, does this fix help? https://github.com/synergy/synergy/pull/4228

http://synergy-project.org/nightly?filter=pr-galkinvv-mac-lag-fix

[TinLe]

@nbolton I tried synergy-pr-galkinvv-mac-lag-fix-aa379e9-MacOSX1010-x86_64.dmg and synergy-pr-galkinvv-mac-lag-fix-aa379e9-Linux-x86_64.rpm (client, server respectively) and it is worse :-(

On the client (OSX) side, the cursor is laggy, jump all over, freezes, keyboard not recognize or lost cursor unless I move the cursor back to Linux desktop and back. Overall, bad experience.

Going to go back to synergy v1.6.2. It's not perfect, but was working much better than this one.

[TinLe]

Actually, I tried v1.6.3 and that was just as bad as the mac-lag-fix build. Reeeeaaaaal bad :-(. I was ready to go back to two keyboards and two monitors, that's how unusable it was.

I am now using v1.6.2 client on OSX and v1.6.3 on Linux as server. Seem to be better, at least same as before w/1.6.2 for both client and server.

Whatever the recent changes after v1.6.2 were, they made it worse. IMHO.

[eyon2935]

@nbolton Hi there, i see the same behavior as decribed for the macbookair 2014. As @TinLe suggested for v1.6.3, i paused using synergy atm. However, thanks for your effort, can't wait for a fix...

[thanhnamit]

@nbolton : How can I download 1.6.2 for Mac OS 10.10 again? I couldn't find it from http://synergy-project.org/download/?alt. I have the same laggy issue with v1.6.3

[thanhnamit]

I go back to v1.6.1 for MacOS X Yosemite (as Server) and install v1.6.3 on windows 8.1 (Client), it works much better than v1.6.3 (so laggy)

[abeldantas]

I've had this problem and I have found out the cause in my case, but it's a very specific situation I doubt anyone is having this problem. I use a software called hubstaff (it records mouse movement along with other things) and when hubstaff if hidden (in the top bar in Yosemite) and I change monitors, it gives me jittery motion. However when I mark the software to be on top, this no longer happens, so it's most likelly some kind of problem on hubstaff's end that is causing this. Among my testing I have also noticed that being connected by cable generally gives me less problems. Even with cable and without any software running on the server, I wouldn't advise playing action games on the client.

[jorgeluisgatica]

MacOS X Yosemite 10.10.2 with Synergy 1.6.1 client and Window 8.1 with Sinergy 1.6.3 server it's works so much better! :) thx @thanhnamit

[timgjr]

Seeing a few blaming Yosemite as the sole reason for the lag. It's not.. A competing product, ShareMouse, works buttery smooth with Yosemite 10.10.2 over wired and wireless. It (Yosemite) has it's own bugs, but simply pushing this off to an OS issue is a cheep way out IMO. Especially when competing products on the market seem to have little issue.

So, I tried Synergy again today, still has lagging issues over wired. It's better, but not good enough.. Going back to ShareMouse for now. Only reason I'm not with ShareMouse permanently is they don't offer a Linux version, so I have to shut down ShareMouse and rev up Synergy occasionally. :(

I prefer ShareMouse's model and GUI anyway as well, they offer a free 'not just beer free' version, and a more pro version with more features if like what you see and you want to pay.

[natebrunette]

@timgjr Careful, I also mentioned sharemouse and I'm pretty sure my comment got deleted.

[aldoreyes]

I'm still hoping the synergy team finds a way around this, the price tag for sharemouse pro edition is IMHO too high.

[jmtabares]

I'm using on Mac osx 10.10.3 (server and client) and looks too laggy (besides the "s" instead of "space bar")

[jw834ksj43]

Also experiencing this issue.

[mfilipe]

I have the same problem here but it is randomly. Most time it works smooth but sometimes it is laggy, mainly in the first seconds when I move the mouse to client from server.

My setup is Windows 8.1 Pro (server) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 (client) using WiFi.

UPDATE 1: I configured the connection between client-server with an ethernet cable and Synergy works smooth all the time. I believe the unique solution for this is Synergy implements another client-server communication that handles better in a slow network environment.

[dshefchik]

I'm still seeing this issue using Windows 8.1 Pro as my server, and Mac OSX 10.10.3 as the client. My cursor lags very frequently. I'm using 802.11ac wifi along the whole network chain, so I wouldn't expect any wireless problems would be causing the issue.

[furlongm]

Still seeing this issue on Windows 8.1 server and OSX 10.10.3 client, both with Synergy 1.7.3 (ssl disabled).

[furlongm]

After some tcpdumping I believe this is caused by TCP retransmissions as outlined in #2838. The retransmissions correspond to lagginess. I have tested this with different networks, and also with a network with no other devices/traffic on it so I think this is not network-specific.

[treyturner]

@furlongm Spot on, this describes exactly my experiences. I tried rolling back the server and client software but I can't find any configuration that works, so I'm out of luck until this gets addressed.

[samrg472]

:+1:

[tschroeter]

I also experiencing this issue between two OS X Yosemite Systems connected over WiFi. Currently I am testing latest nightly Synergy build but unable to use it effectively because if i am switching to another OSX Yosemite System there are huge lacks and drops using mouse or keyboard. Between OSX Yosemite and Windows 8.1 all seems to work great. What should I do, how can I support you to use Synergy effectively

[tymat]

I'm getting the same issue on OS X 10.10. This is starting to get annoying. I have ping running on 2 open terminal windows with average 2ms return trip. It's not a network problem. Something else is going on.

[peteallen]

I'm seeing this with OS X 10.10.4 as the server and Windows 7 as the client, both hardwired into the same gigabit router and 1ms ping times between the machines. Like others have said, I'm also pretty confident this is not a network issue.

The lag will sometimes persist on the OS X machine even after I quit Synergy and until I restart the computer.

[flourscent]

had same issue with server on arch linux and client on mac os 10.10.3. I just had my mac upgraded to 10.10.4 and no longer laggy cursor.

[actapia]

I installed the latest nightly build on OS X 10.10.3, and it worked immediately after installation. Unfortunately, the problem came back upon restarting and updating to 10.10.4. In fact, it is worse than it ever was before, with the cursor seeming to not appear at all some of the time. It is difficult to tell if restarting was the problem, or if the update was the problem. As noted by others, mouse issues continue to occur until restart, even after Synergy has been stopped.