Getting more screen real estate with x2x

x2x is a program to transfer keyboard and mouse input from one X display to another. But in X, displays can be controlled by remote mice and keyboards (using X-forwarding), so what x2x really does is let you control a desktop remotely.

One particularly neat feature of x2x is the directional mode, which can essentially make two monitors behave like a single large screen: when you move your mouse off one edge of the first display, it appears on the second, even if the displays are running on two separate computers. This is really handy if you have two computers which are near each other and you need to use both of them at the same time, or if you just want some more screen area for certain tasks (for example, writing on one display while reading on another). It's actually easy enough that you can set up this kind of sharing ad-hoc, whenever you need it.

If you can SSH from one computer to the other, then x2x is very easy to configure. Suppose you have two computers named LAPTOP and DESKTOP. Then on LAPTOP do the following:

laptop$ ssh -X desktop
desktop$ x2x -east -from $DISPLAY -to :0

Now LAPTOP's mouse and keyboard can control DESKTOP when you move the mouse off the right-hand edge of the screen. To make DESKTOP's mouse and keyboard control LAPTOP instead, do the following on LAPTOP:

laptop$ ssh -X desktop
desktop$ x2x -west -from :0 -to $DISPLAY

If neither of the computers you're using can SSH to the other, you'll need a third computer that you have access to. Suppose you want to connect the displays of LAPTOP1 and LAPTOP2. In this case, the key is to connect both to SERVER and determine which remote displays they are connected on, then invoke x2x on one of them. On LAPTOP1, do this:

laptop1$ ssh -X server
server$ echo $DISPLAY
:10

Then on LAPTOP2, running

laptop2$ ssh -X server
server$ x2x -east -from :10 -to $DISPLAY

allows LAPTOP1 to control LAPTOP2 (provided you have replaced :10 with what LAPTOP1's $DISPLAY variable actually is). To make LAPTOP2 control LAPTOP1:

laptop2$ ssh -X server
server$ x2x -west -from $DISPLAY -to :10

Of course, you can substitute the direction arguments with -north, -south, or -east, depending on how the monitors are actually arranged relative to each other.