# FreeBSD as dedicated game server



## danaeckel (Jun 28, 2013)

I am wondering how many people uses their FreeBSD systems as a dedicated game server and what games they serve to. I know Xonotic, OpenTTD and Minecraft can use FreeBSD servers from what I read, are there others?

Thanks,
Dana


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## fonz (Jun 28, 2013)

For starters, FreeBSD can be used as a METIN2 server, but this is subject to licensing 

More seriously though, I don't have a lot of experience of using FreeBSD as a game _server_. Using it as a game _machine_ using emulators (for e.g. DOS or SNES) is another topic and probably not what you meant. And I've been toying with the idea of developing some sort of combined chat/messaging/gaming client-server thingy that implements common card and/or board games, but off the top of my head I wouldn't know of any ready-to-go game server applications.


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## lme@ (Jul 3, 2013)

`cd /usr/ports/games && make quicksearch name=-server`


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## Mormegil (Jul 3, 2013)

I ran a Counter-strike server on FreeBSD at one point.


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## TommyC7 (Jul 4, 2013)

I've used FreeBSD for Team Fortress 2, DayZ and Minecraft servers. Also, the Playstation 4 is coming out. I hear that's a good dedicated game server running FreeBSD.


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## LordInateur (Jul 22, 2013)

Hello. I use four FreeBSD servers as my Minecraft gaming server "Craft95". The machines are as follows:

- craft95-head
- craft95-hub
- craft95-quest
- craft95-dev

The machine "craft95-head" runs on approximately 3.5 GHz at approximately 2 GB RAM. In the background it runs the FTP, SSH, Apache, MySQL, SSHGuard, IPFILTER, and Murmur daemons. It has Java (OpenJDK) installed, of course. In the foreground it runs Lilypad (which connects the other three together) and screen which allows me to SSH into the shell and disconnect without losing work.

The other three machines run on about 3.5 GHz and are running approximately 1 GB of RAM each. They are identical in their software configuration. They have FTP and SSH daemons, Java (OpenJDK), and appropriate CraftBukkit self-updating scripts; then, each runs their own Minecraft server. Each Minecraft server works together so that each acts as a "world" on that server to provide a seamless user experience.

Interestingly enough, because all servers are within the same LAN and the router only forwards ports to craft95-head, there is no need for IPFILTER to be configured on the three smaller servers.


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## chessmaster (Aug 2, 2013)

Here is an outdated URL tutorial about a COD4 dedicated server install for FreeBSD. 
http://blog.melvinrook.nl/2008/11/25/installing-a-call-of-duty-4-server-on-freebsd/


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## PacketMan (Oct 28, 2016)

Anyone running and still enjoying a Quake server on FreeBSD?  I see there are a bunch of Quake ports available.


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## PacketMan (Nov 17, 2016)

FYI if anyone is interested. I have the following game servers running:

games/wesnoth
games/stendhal
games/minecraft-server
games/bzflag-server
games/redeclipse
games/warsow
games/xonotic
games/iourbanterror-server
Would be nice to see more server based games having 'server ports' available.


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## zspider (Nov 18, 2016)

Should be possible to run an RTCW(Quake3) dedicated server as well.



fonz said:


> For starters, FreeBSD can be used as a METIN....



Unfortunately we have to be moving on... *changes to technical difficulties* lol.


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## SirDice (Nov 18, 2016)

For a long time I had an Arma 2 (DayZ mod) server running through Wine. That actually worked better than running the Linux executable through the Linux emulation (it crashed quite regularly). Unfortunately I couldn't get Arma 3 dedicated server working, not through Wine, not through the Linux emulation. So that one got moved to a dedicated Linux box. But now that we have emulators/linux_base-c7 I might have another go at that.


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## PacketMan (Nov 19, 2016)

I have a growing interest in purpose driven FreeBSD machines. This includes:

Open gaming - server and console
Media streaming, processing and rendering(displaying).
Bittorrent based caching.
Been thinking lately about some new ideas. I've been inspired by NetFlix and What'sApp. Not sure where my thoughts will go but more and more I think the world can benefit from FreeBSD more and more.


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## jrronimo (Feb 27, 2017)

I use my FreeBSD server to run game servers for my friends and I. I mostly use the Linux dedicated servers and the linux_base_c6 or c7 port (I don't remember which I installed way back when). I'm currently running Terarria (using tshock), Doom 2, and Unreal Tournament 2004.

I've tried to set up Soldat, but the Linux server won't start. I'm currently trying to get a dedicated server for Chivalry running (which uses Unreal Engine), but am running into a hangup: 
	
	



```
./UDKGameServer-Linux: /lib/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.15' not found (required by /Shares/Servers/Chivalry/Binaries/Linux/lib/libsteam_api.so)
```

I see other reports of people getting servers from Steam running, but I haven't found the solution yet. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?


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## aht0 (Mar 1, 2017)

Ages ago I rented Soldier Of Fortune 2 server. Game server provider allowed SSH access and I found out it was running a FreeBSD (~2003 roughly).


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## SirDice (Mar 1, 2017)

jrronimo said:


> ```
> /lib/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.15' not found
> ```


This error typically happens when the application requires a newer version of Linux than the Linux emulation provides.


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## jrronimo (Mar 14, 2017)

SirDice said:


> This error typically happens when the application requires a newer version of Linux than the Linux emulation provides.



Indeed it was the problem! I was using emulation/linux_base-c6, whose GLIBC was too old. I've swapped it out to emulation/linux_base-c7 and Insurgency works great now. I believe Chivalry is also working, but I need to verify and spend some time configuring it. The other servers have fired up well so far. Thanks so much!

Soldat is still a problem, but I chatted briefly with @Mahdi_Mokhi (on Twitter) and he looked at a log and said there are definitely a few problems with the Soldat server software, but it's also related to what's missing from Linux_procfs. That one'll have to wait a bit. The thread starts here, for anyone curious.

To provide further information in case anyone comes across this in the future, I successfully have the following game servers running in FreeBSD 11.0-Release-p8, using emulation/linux_base-c7, generally following the "Linux dedicated server" directions when I can find them. I've listed the start script I use after each game, since that's been hard to find at times. Some of the things in those executables are specific to my instance -- UT, for instance, has a lot of custom mutators to keep it still fun:

- Insurgency

```
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/Insurgency:/path/to/Insurgency/bin:{$LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
./srcds_linux -console -port 27000 -insecure -tickrate 128 +map buhriz_coop +sv_pure 1
```
- Unreal Tournament 2004 -- has crashed periodically, though not since I've switched to linux_base-c7... but I've also restarted it frequently while testing.

```
#Must be executed from /path/to/UT2k4/System; below is all one line.
./ucc-bin server DM-UTCRAFT?game=XGame.xDeathMatch?mutator=XGame.MutQuadJump,XGame.MutSlomoDeath,UnrealGame.MutMovementModifier,BonusPack.MutCrateCombo,UnrealGame.MutBigHead,XRelics.XRelics ini=yourserver.ini log=yourlog.log -nohomedir
```
- Terraria

```
mono --server --gc=sgen -O=all TerrariaServer.exe -port 7790 -maxplayers 8 -world "/path/to/Terraria/User/My Games/Terraria/Worlds/world.wld"
```
- Minecraft

```
java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.1.11.2.jar nogui
```
- Zandronum (for Doom 1 & 2 -- has unofficial FreeBSD builds that I use.)

```
/path/to/Zandronum/zandronum-server brutalv20b.pk3 skulltag_actors.pk3 +sv_nojump 1 +sv_nocrouch 1 +sv_hostname "server name" +skill 5 +botskill 5 +sv_forcepassword 1 +sv_password "6charminpasswd" +cl_rockettrails +cl_grenadetrails
```


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