Newbie needs help setting up own Linux server for self

One Salient Oversight · Wed Jan 05, 2005 3:50 am

Although I may one day decide to join the online gaming world, I would really like to experience it on my own computer without the time lag and politics associated with playing with/against real people!

I'm still trying to get my head around Linux installations - so much more difficult than windows but so much more secure!

I downloaded both the client and server via URPMI. But for some reason I can't seem to access the Crossfire server. I can access the client, and log on to a public server, but I don't want to do that without trying my own server first.

Freeciv has both server and client acessible.

When I shut down Linux, there seems to be some information to say that the Server was trying to start.

Anyway, can someone give me a list of what software (libs etc) my PC needs to run both server and client?

Alternatively, I have downloaded the server again as a Tar.Gz. Anyone want to tell me what to do with all the files once I have arked them?

P3-500, 384mb RAM, 40gb HDD, 32Mb Video Card, 17" monitor, Mandrake 10.1 ( Linux since April 2003).

bort · Post by **bort** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 4:01 am

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 Gimli# tar -xzvf crossfire-server-*
Gimli# cd crossfire-se*
Gimli# ./configure ; make
Gimli# su
Password:        
Gimli# make install

How I start it.

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Gimli# crossfire &
Gimli# gcfclient -server localhost

Thats how I start up my server. If it says
"lib<something>" not found, please tell us what the lib<something> is.

BTW: Playing with the people on metalforge is fun. I prefer to play only on my server for map testing. Players on metalforge would gladly help a noob start out. I myself have donated plat, weapons, and armour to noobs. Good luck to you!

Salathar · Post by **Salathar** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:55 am

If you

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make install

as root as suggested above you will need to manually change some of the permissions to let your server save player related information. On my system the files that needed changing were:

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$ pwd
/usr/games/crossfire/var/crossfire
$ls
banish_file  clockdata       crossfiremail  highscore  players/   unique-items/
bookarch     crossfireboard  datafiles/     maps/      temp.maps

But I personally prefer to

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make; checkinstall

kinda like the idea of being able to control what is present on the system.
There a similar post on that: http://www.metalforge.net/cfmb/viewtopic.php?t=681

Alternatively if you already have the server installed and do not want to go though all the trouble of compiling it from source then:

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 locate crossfire|grep bin[] This will hopefully help you find the server binary already on the system. In my case it is in /usr/games/crossfire/bin/crossfire. Just run this file and see what happens, if if the last line it comes up with is "Waiting for connections..." then it's good to go

Good luck and hope to see you joining the online community one day :)

One Salient Oversight · Fri Jan 07, 2005 11:59 pm

Yep everything worked. Thanks Bort

One Salient Oversight · Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:01 am

Well actually things are not 100% yet.

I am assuming that you can save characters and play them later. I save my character on the altar and then later I go into the inn and go to sleep - all after I have done me some killin'.

So I did all this and closed down the client. Then I closed down the server. Then I restarted the computer. Then I restarted the server. Then I restarted the client. Then I typed in the name of the character I saved. But I ended up with a brand new one.

Any ideas on what to do?

woo · Post by **woo** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 4:12 am

As Salathar said, the default installation doesn't give you permission to write to the files necessary to save a character - you need to chmod some of the dir's files - or else run the server as root.

You ought to play on metalforge though, as playing alone you won't have nearly as much fun

One Salient Oversight · Sat Jan 08, 2005 6:55 am

What about running in SU? I'll try it...

Mith · Post by **Mith** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:09 am

One Salient Oversight wrote:What about running in SU? I'll try it...

do you really want the server running with root permissions? it might fix the problems - not sure - but if you just give it the rights to write in the directories Salathar mentioned, you're also done - and more secure

woo · Post by **woo** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 11:05 pm

chmod -R 777 /
will fix the problem too

(and make some others)

The correct method is to change the perms on the files as Salathar indicated, but for an internal lan server running as root shouldn't be a problem.. (YMMV)

Avion · Post by **Avion** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 5:05 pm

Make or designate a crossfire user account and then do the following:

make a directory and give this user permission to write to it, something like /usr/local/crossfire (or wherever you want to install it).

then as the crossfire user you can run

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/crossfire

this will set up CF to install in this directory instead of the default and you should have no problems with saving files or changing permissions and no worries about using root for running CF (which you shouldn't).