Guide to hosting Zandronum on Ubuntu for dummies from command line

[Boko]

Hello people,


I noticed theres not a more in dept guide to hosting Zandronum on Ubuntu via command line so I figured I'd share my wealth of knowledge with you.

- First off download Zandronum.
- Extract.
- Make sure you have your iwads in the folder, as well as any other wads you want to run.
- Create an ini file to keep server settings. (check http://zandronum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=807 I posted an example there.)

- Then you want to start off by invoking the zandronum-server program. (for noobs its ./ ) Then after that use the -hosts flag, followed by a "+" and game mode, skill number, port number, and then "-"iwad. After that add any addition pwads with the "-"file command. After you load up all your pwads, you want to make sure you write a ini file that contains all server settings. That gets executed with the +exec command. Its in that exact order as well. I know this is confusing, so here's an example.

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./zandronum-server -host +cooperative 3 -port 10677 -iwad DOOM2.wad -file PsychoPhobia.pk3 +exec psy.ini

That only runs the server until the terminal is exited or closed somehow. To run the server as a backgrounded service we need to use the nohup command. This command outputs all server logs into a single file, which is useful if you host a server cluster and want at all the logs at once. So allow me to give you another example.

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nohup nice -2 ./zandronum-server -host +cooperative 3 -port 10675 -iwad DOOM2.wad -file skulltag_actors.pk3 skulltag_data.pk3 sst_v1.4rc3.pk3 +exec sst.ini &

start with the nohup command first. Nohup writes all output to a logfile like I said above. Then after that is the process priorty, which is invoked with the "nice" command. Then at the end, you see that "&" symbol, thats important for backgrounding. Make sure you add a space after the ini file.

You may notice if your spellings off on the wads it may not load correctly or be able to find the wad.

[L1T]

Can you explain where to 'wget' the zandronum binaries from? Also I remember when I installed it and ran servers on my debian box I had to install a bunch of librarys and shit to compile it. Should'nt you explain how to do that? Great guide thanks, people do need this.

BTW I still only connect to skulltag servers because it's a pain in the ass to manually run zandronum client join commands from the CLI. is it still a pain to join zandronum servers or can we join them from doomseeker now?

[Boko]

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wget http://zandronum.com/downloads/testing/1.0/ZandroDev1.0-120805-1755linux-x86.tar.bz2

Think that should work for build 805 32bit linux.

Yes the doomseeker from the Zandronum forums has the ability to join Zandronum servers, and the newer Internet Doom Explorer can also connect to Zandronum servers from the server browser list.

[L1T]

I made a rapid Zandronum Server deployment script for Debian and Debian-like systems such as ubuntu if anyone wants it: http://www2.l1tcomputing.com:8080/scripts.php

This script will leave you with fully functional Zandronum servers within minutes! It will give you two simple options. The first will DL and install zandronum to your specified folder. While the second option will generate fully functional server scripts ready to be ran. It will go through questions like server name, hostname, path to pwads, what port you want to run on, what Iwad, how many pwads, what pwads, how many cVars, what cvars? It will then generate a .sh bash script that you can run to start your server whenever you want. It also automatically opens up firewall ports etc etc. Just check it out. All you need to do is supply the wads and follow instructions! Only thing I need to add is a quick if statement for the option one asking if you want 32 or 64. So for now it is just for 32 bit. You can always change the wget line to the 64bit zandronum DL link if need be...