ESF Server Linux Install

[afonic]

ESF Server Linux Install

So you have a linux server with remote access to it and you want to create an ESF server? Nice! Let's see how I can help!


Getting HLDS files

First of all get in a directory that you have write access and create a folder named hlds_l, making it writeable and finally entering it!:

mkdir hlds_l
chmod 777 hlds_l
cd hlds_l

Now we need to get Steam. Use this command to do so:

wget http://64.71.168.5/steam.tar.gz

After you got steam.tar.gz we need to unpack and make it executable. Finally we need to run it.

Unpack:
tar -zxvf steam.tar.gz
Executable:
chmod +x steam
Run:
./steam

When you run Steam you should see something like this:

Checking bootstrapper version ...
Getting version X of Steam HLDS Update Tool
Downloading. . . . . . . . . . .
Steam Linux Client updated, please retry the command

OK now you need to create a Steam account for your server to use (don't use your own one!). Below is the general code and an example:

./steam -command create -username <username> -email <email> -password <password> -question <question> -answer <answer>

./steam -command create -username afonic -email [email protected] -password yourpass -question "Do you like Picollo?" -answer yes

You should get something like this if your account is created:

Checking bootstrapper version ...
Creating Account
Account Created successfully

OK and now it's time to download all the HLDS files. Just type this (again general type and example):

./steam -command update -game <game> -dir /path/to/your/hlds_l -username <username> -password <password> -remember_password

./steam -command update -game esforces -dir /home/afonic/hlds_l -username afonic -password yourpass -remember_password

If everything is OK then Steam should download the HLDS files, so we can procceed! Don't be fooled by the -esforces in game, it doesn't get any ESF files, I found it's a good way to grab just only the needed files!


Getting ESF files

OK now you need to get ESF files. When you are still in the same dir (hlds_l) just use wget again to get them. I don't give direct links, just go to http://www.esforces.com/?p=files and find some to use. You need to get both 1.2 and 1.2.1 files and unpack them:

wget http://url-you-have-to-find/esf12.tar.gz
wget http://url-you-have-to-find/esf121.tar.gz
tar -zxvf esf12.tar.gz
tar -zxvf esf121.tar.gz

Now if you have a look in the dir's contents a dir named esf must have been created! (the command to see dirs / files is "ls"). You are now ready to start the server!

Starting the server


The basic command to start the server is:

./hlds_run -game esf +maxplayers 12 +map esf_cell_games

This will start a new game for 12 players in the map cell_games. More options are +port to set the port and +ip to set the IP.
If everything went OK the server should be running, included in Steam lists, at yourip:27105. (for example mine is 64.71.168.5:27015)

Now you may want to run the server in the background so that you can close your ssh connection with the server. To do that just type:

nohup ./hlds_run -game esf +maxplayers 12 +map esf_cell_games &

And press enter once. To stop the server try "killall hlds_run && killall hlds_i486".

It's a good idea to make the folder chmod'ed to 755 or 750 again:

cd .. (to get out of hlds_l dir)
chmod 750 hlds_l

If you want to change the default message get inside esf folder and create a file named motd.txt putting whatever you want in there! If you want to change the mapcycle edit mapcycle.txt
You may also want to edit server.cfg to change your server's name and set an rcon password!

I hope you found this helpfull enough for sticky! I made it using this excellent article for CS server here:
http://japje.nl/steam/install (well I actually almost copied the hlds part!)

If you have any trouble post in the Servers board!

 

[Texas]

If i had linux it woudl be usefull

ps. another greek w00t

 

[afonic]

Geia xara!

Well actually it's not for the people using linux, they can do stuff with the GUI easier, this is for the ones renting a server or a virtual server (serverpronto.com or redwoodvirtual.com) and they want to run ESF server on it, like myself!

 

[Texas]

ill ask a stupid question here...
it doenst work with site servers does it :fight:

 

[afonic]

If you have shell access you can run it! I run mine in a $10/month LVS at redwoodvirtual.com!

 

[harSens]

*cough* http://forum.esforces.com/showthread.php?t=24129 *cough*
Btw, setting your hlds_l dir world writeable doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

 

[afonic]

This article is rather old and does not explain how to run the server using Steam. If you compare them you'd see they both work, just this one is the newest one and I think more easy too.

And directory 777 is usefull for Steam to install everything with no problems. It's no risk as it is not accessible via web (you won't put it in your public_html folder would you?) However feel free to change it back to 755 or something.

If you know a better way to install ESF server than this show it, don't pretend to be the smart one.

BTW the other article is for people that have a linux box. If you run the server like this and close ssh window it will stop the server too!

 

[harSens]

This article is rather old and does not explain how to run the server using Steam. If you compare them you'd see they both work, just this one is the newest one and I think more easy too.

Oh, bwaak, I kinda missed the old one is still for WON

And directory 777 is usefull for Steam to install everything with no problems. It's no risk as it is not accessible via web (you won't put it in your public_html folder would you?) However feel free to change it back to 755 or something.

World write access means everyone who has access to that dir can write (or delete) in this. Including other users connecting to this computer through ssh. So it might be wise to set it to 750 (or just 700) especially since you're assuming the server is not fully configured by the user itself.

BTW the other article is for people that have a linux box. If you run the server like this and close ssh window it will stop the server too!

That's mentioned later in the thread:

Use Screen to launch the server

screen -A -m -d -S esfserver ./hlds_run -game esf +port 27017 +maxplayers 12 +map esf_kami

Then press Control-A D to put it to the background
Then when you want to get back to the console type

screen -r esfserver

Screen is a more elegant way of doing that than nohup, because you can get back to the assigned screen later on to manage the server.

If modify this tutorial so the file permissions are set in a safe way, it doesn't involve downloading the server files from an arbitrary server and getting around signing the valve license, I'll stickify this.

 

[afonic]

Hi,

well you are right about the links, I moved steam.tar.gz to my server and changed the link to that.

About the dir permissions I didn't assumed the the server is not fully configured by the user itself, I assumed exactly the opposite! Remember that a shared box with many users using it cannot be used to host a ESF server as it's pretty power consuming (unless of course the server is very powerful itself).
But of course you are right about permissions, so I added the change back to 750 again to improve security!

About nohup, I am just used to using it and so I included it in that guide. I guess the admin would use rcon commands to control the server and not ssh, so screen is not really needed (but of course can be used instead of nohup, no problem!).

BTW the steam.tar.gz contains the original Steam client.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I hope this one is helpful for newbie users!