Synergy 2.0.12 Beta ignores macOS Mojave keyboard modifier key settings

[lconover]

Synergy 2 doesn't support custom keyboard mappings in the same awesome way that Synergy 1 did to allow PC users to gracefully go from one platform to the next - which is a shame.  I'm searching for a workaround.  

Synergy 2 is not applying the macOS keyboard mappings when the macOS system is the client.  I'm betting that this is because input from the Synergy-supplied 'keyboard' is being read as being from a separate input stream, since hardware attached keyboards each have their own settings under System Preferences>Keyboard>Modifier Keys. 

Is there any way to get Synergy 2's input to show up as a 'keyboard' in the listing so that I can remap those keys appropriately to my hardware using macOS's internal settings?

 

[lconover]

I found a solution to my own post.

This took quite a bit of troubleshooting, and it's a bit of a hack.  These settings assume you're using a Windows system as the server, and the Mac system is the client.

What this will do to map your keys:

• Windows key 'control' will be 'command' on the Mac client
• Windows key 'Windows' will be the 'option key' on the Mac client
• Windows key 'alt' will be the 'control' key on the Mac client

On Windows:

1. Stop the Synergy service running in the background.
2. Go to C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME HERE\AppData\Local\Symless\Synergy
3. Edit the synergy.conf file as follows for the destination Mac under section: screens

4.     ctrl = meta
       alt = ctrl
       super = alt

5. Save your changes.
6. SET synergy.conf THE FILE TO READ ONLY - this is key, since otherwise your changes will get overwritten as soon as the Synergy service restarts.  I had it nuke my test files several times before I realized what was happening.
7. Restart the server.

I'm going to post this on other related threads to help others as well.  Note that if you change your setup later, you're going to have to undo this change (let Synergy edit the file), make the setup changes, and reapply it.

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