Automatically start a game server when system boots

Kahless · 07-26-2004, 09:29 PM

We are setting up a gameserver that is going to be colocated in a closet off-site.

Normally to start the server:

Sombody has to:

log in as "Gameserver" with the password
cd to the game dir: cd hlds_l
run the script to start the game: screen -S hlds ./hlds_run -game cstrike +map de_dust +maxplayers 26

Does anybody know where I can find info on how to make this all happen automatically, so all the guy at the server colo has to do is plug it in, turn it on, and the server will start?

idaho · 07-27-2004, 12:30 AM

You can probably use an /etc/inittab entry to do this.

set your default init level to 3 (networking enabled, no X)
id:3:initdefault

set your script to auto restart itself doing something like (see the inittab man page for details):
GS:3:respawn:/home/Gameerver/hlds_l/hlds_run -game cstrike +map de_dust +maxplayers 26

MS3FGX · 07-27-2004, 01:41 AM

You would usually put something like that in your systems boot scripts.

Kahless · 07-27-2004, 03:07 AM

ok: a couple of thoughts.

I got it working by adding these lines to rc.M echo

=======================
echo Entering HLDS directory
cd /home/gameserver/steam/
echo Trying to start HLDS
./hlds_run -game cstrike +map de_dust +maxplayers 21 &
========================

This works, but its a bit sloppy. Any text sent to the game's console pops into the login screen console, and it doesnt give me a way to actually log into the server console.

I also cant join the server... It runs, but the clients wont connect. They start to try, but it dies. NFI why.

It would be better If I could start the server as the user "gameserver" in a screen session, so I could log into it from console. It would also be nice if the process would respawn if it died.

Ideas friendly hackers?

Edit: another improtant tidbit: hlds gets pissed if you dont cd to its directory before you run it. Running it with a full path make it crash, cding to its dir and then running it make it happy. so any script would need to cd, then run it.

idaho · 07-27-2004, 11:01 AM

I suggested the inittab approach instead of an rc script to address the respawning issue.

It sounds like you are going to have use an Expect script to launch this.

Kahless · 07-28-2004, 02:56 AM

Bump?

I tried your initab thing, and i tried running it from rc.local and rc.M All had the same result.

The server runs, but it wont allow clients to connect. Clients see it, but they cant connect to it.

Isnt there a way to tell the computer to automactically run a few commands as a certain user at boot time, without that user needing to log in to make it happen?

ffs. Its gotta be do-able.

floop · 08-01-2004, 01:23 AM

I'm having the same issure. I've been messing around with scripts to try to make HLDS start in screen automatically so that I can SSH to the server and view the HLDS console. If anyone can tell me how to do this it would be great. What I Kahless and I need is for HLDS_run to automatically start in a screen session so we can connect to it later. I have been using Linux for about a week now and don't know anything about scripting and stuff so I have no idea if I've done any of it right.

Here's what I've done...

Created a file in /home/hlds called hook with these lines:

Code:

 #!/bin/sh
su hlds
cd /home/hlds/hlds_hook
screen -dmS hook -X ./hlds_run...yadda yadda with the rest of the HLDS switches

HLDS is installed in /home/hlds/hlds_hook and hlds_run will re-start the server if it crashes. What seems to happen is that it switches user to hlds and sits at a command prompt without continuing with any of the other lines. I've tried several variations of that script with varying results but no luck. It seems to me that if I can make this script work from the command line when logged in as root, that I can add it to rc.local and have it run when the system boots up.