

Ask HN: Using my laptop as a keyboard + mouse - atakan_gurkan

I have an old IBM (really old, so not Lenovo) Thinkpad. I really like the keyboard and the trackpoint on this device, but it is no longer powerful enough for my everyday needs. Is it possible to turn this machine into a USB keyboard+mouse combination, by using a USB bridge cable and appropriate software? It has the latest Debian running without any problems (except for speed and HD capacity).<p>I would also be very happy to turn it into a standalone USB device (so I do not need to plug in the power), but I am guessing this would be much more complicated. My electronic shop skills are limited to soldering and using a  scope. The closest thing I found on the net was this [1], which looks rather cool. Unfortunately, I cannot tell if the keyboard remained as comfortable as it is and more importantly this project does not address the trackpoint issue. Still, if anyone has any ideas (or better yet experience), I'd appreciate if you shared them.<p>I am aware that Lenovo sells a USB Thinkpad keyboard with trackpoint, and I am planning to order it. However, 1) some reviews say it is not really the same feeling 2) buying a keyboard is not nearly as much fun as increasing the usefulness time of a piece of hardware that I love dearly.<p>1: http://www.grynx.com/projects/converted-laptop-keyboard/1/
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kwantam
Have you considered running Synergy on the machine?

<http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/>

I use this at work across two or three machines and it works really well.

Once you get this set up the way you want it, you could probably go
(literally) headless---remove the display from the laptop---and administer it
over an SSH connection from another machine as necessary.

~~~
nickzoic
Agreed, Synergy is excellent. For me, anyway, I can have the laptop open on
the desk in front of the desktop's monitors. Your underpowered laptop is
probably still pretty good for reading email, etc.

Also PS: If you like the action of the Lenovo laptop keyboards you might like
the Kinesis keyboards too ... that's what I've shifted to using lately.

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pasbesoin
The last I checked (a few years ago), there were two versions of the ThinkPad
stand-alone keyboard (old, and new). The ergonomics differed enough that there
were plenty of comments on this. So, when looking at information on it, make
sure you know which revision the person is talking about.

I seem to recall:

    
    
      +  Differences in the flexing of the keyboard
      +  Differences in the "wrist rest" shelf in front of the keys.
      +  Perhaps some differences in keys / key placement / layout.
    

But it's been a while.

(I never ended up buying one, myself.)

