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How to start Synergy 1 or Synergy 3 at login on a Raspberry Pi

Updated

Written for Synergy 3 (v3.7.2) and Synergy 1 (v1.21.4), checked 3 October 2026.

Product: Synergy 1 and Synergy 3
Operating system: Raspberry Pi OS

Synergy 3

Synergy 3 starts at login by itself, so there's nothing to set up. Its installer adds a login item that starts the Synergy 3 background service when you log in to the desktop.

Synergy 1

Add the Synergy 1 app to your desktop's autostart and set it to start in the background. It then starts at login and connects to the server with the settings you saved.

Before you start: Synergy 1 for Raspberry Pi works only in an X11 session, and Raspberry Pi OS starts a Wayland desktop by default. Switch to X11 first: run sudo raspi-config, choose 6 Advanced Options, then A6 Wayland, then W1 X11 Openbox window manager with X11 backend, and restart the Raspberry Pi.

Install Synergy 1

Download the Raspberry Pi OS (ARM64) package from the download page. If the page has no Raspberry Pi OS section, download the Ubuntu 22.04 arm64 package instead; it's the same file. Not sure which version to download? See: Do I install ARMHF or ARM64 on my Raspberry Pi?

If the Raspberry Pi has no keyboard and mouse, you can install over SSH. From the computer you downloaded on, copy the file to the Raspberry Pi (replace user with your user name on the Raspberry Pi and 192.168.1.20 with its IP address):

scp ~/Downloads/synergy_*.deb user@192.168.1.20:

Then log in to the Raspberry Pi and install it:

ssh user@192.168.1.20
sudo apt install ./synergy_*.deb

Set up the client

This step happens once, in the Synergy 1 app on the Raspberry Pi's desktop, so connect a keyboard and mouse for it if the Raspberry Pi has none.

  1. Open Synergy 1.
  2. Select Use another computer’s mouse and keyboard (make this computer the client).
  3. In Connect to:, enter the IP address of the server computer.
  4. Click Start and check the Raspberry Pi connects. Synergy 1 remembers this and starts the connection again whenever the app opens.
  5. Click Edit > Preferences, open the Window tab, and under When the application starts choose Send to background. Click Save.

Start Synergy 1 at login

Run these commands on the Raspberry Pi to add Synergy 1 to your autostart:

mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart
cp /usr/share/applications/com.symless.synergy.desktop ~/.config/autostart/

Restart the Raspberry Pi. Synergy 1 starts in the background when you log in and connects to the server.

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