Use desktop monitor as an extension of Laptop monitor

[Carthik Sharma]

Hi all,

Yes, I know about synergy :) but the problem I seek to solve does not
seem to be solvable using synergy.

The setup:

I have a laptop that is my primary workhorse at work. This has a Intel
graphics card that can do xinerama - dual-head display.

I have a desktop at work, with a monitor connected to it. This desktop
is used only as a print/file server - I hardly execute any commands on
it, but I use it when I 'forget' to bring my laptop. So I cannot use
this machine in a headless fashion.

What I would love to do is:

Use a software tool that enables me to use the desktop monitor as a
extension to my laptop monitor.
This tool should:
1. Still allow me to use the desktop monitor for the desktop (using a
keyboard shortcut or something similar?)
2. the moment I connect to the lan at work, and boot-up, I should be
able to magically extend my laptop's display to the desktop display as
an extended desktop. When I power my laptop off, the desktop display
should be used as a display by the desktop.


Right now, every morning, I unplug the monitor from the desktop, plug
it into my laptop, and use it as an extended monitor, and then reverse
it in the evening - this is a lot of work, and so i am increasingly
not doing this. The use of a software tool would be great to acheive
this.

I have heard things said about using vnc/x-over-ssh to extend
monitors, but haven't the slightest clue as to how to do this...

I love the synergy idea, too bad it does not let me use both monitors
for one computer when I want to...

Any ideas are welcome. Thank you for the patient ear (eye?)

:)
Carthik.
--
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Central Florida
Homepage: http://carthik.net