Deathball Dedicated Server Guide (Linux)

This guide is meant for people who don't know linux/unix systems well (they should start by reading Appendix A) as well as for people who know it quite well already, but don't know yet how to set up a UT2004/DeathBall server. If you have any suggestions/improvements, please email me.

0: Requirements

This tutorial assumes that you have ssh access to a linux dedicated server and are using a ssh client like PuTTy to connect to the server.
It also assumes you have the text editor "vim" installed and ready to use.

1: Install the vanilla (unmodified) UT2004 dedicated server into any directory

- Download the latest dedicated server (all platforms)
- Unzip it into the target directory (this tutorial assumes you unpack it to ./server).
- Get yourself a dedicated server cdkey and copy it to your server/System dir.

2: Patch the server

You should also make sure that you have the latest version of UT2004. Download and install/unzip the latest patch from ut.com if you haven't.

3: Prepare the dedicated server

Open System\UT2004.ini:

    vim server/System/UT2004.ini

Now, edit the following sections:

    [URL]
    Port=7777 ;if you are running multiple servers, you should change that port

    [Engine.GameReplicationInfo]
    ServerName=MyServer
    ShortName=MySrv
    AdminName=<ADMINNAME>
    AdminEmail=admin@server.com

    [UWeb.WebServer]
    bEnabled=True
    ListenPort=80 ;if you are running a webserver on this server, you should change the port!

    [Engine.AccessControl]
    AdminPassword=<ADMINPASS>

    Save and exit with ":wq[Enter]"

4: Download and install DeathBall on the server

- Download the zip install of Deathball
- Unzip it to your Server/ directory so that it creates server/deathball/*

5: First run and creating a startup file

You should be able to run the server now:

    ./server/System/ucc-bin server DB-Cube.ut2?AdminName=<ADMINNAME>?AdminPassword=<ADMINPASS> -mod=deathball -ini=deathball.ini --nohomedir &

Note: The "&" has the effect that it won't kill the server once you exit your ssh client!
Note 2: Be careful with the order of commands. -mod has to be placed before -ini, otherwise it will fail!
You should now be able to connect to the server now with the ip and the port you specified in UT2004.ini!
If everything went right, create a startup file with the command we used to start the server. the file can have any name. From then on, you can simply start the server by calling the startup filename.
You should now log into WebAdmin and configure maplist and gametype specific things there. Connect to WebAdmin using http://ip:port where port is the "ListenPort" specified in the ini, you dont need to append it to the link if the port is 80.

Appendix

A: Useful/ needed Linux/Unix commands

Note: most of them have the "--help" command to show detailed help (e.g. "ls --help")

- ls - directory listing, "ls -l" for detailed listing
- ps - process listing (useful if you don't want to use "killall" when having multiple dedicated servers)
- kill pid (get the pid from ps, e.g. "kill 618")
- killall bin (where bin is the name of the executable, e.g. "killall ucc-bin")
- mv,cp,rm (move,copy,remove - should be self-explaining, they also have useful flags like "rm -rf ./server" to remove "server" with all subdirectories and files)
- unzip - unzips the specified zip

B: WebAdmin configuration

You can set up pretty much everything in WebAdmin. I recommend that you click yourself through it and explore the functions itself. Some useful hints, though:
- If you specify a game password, it can still be overruled by the admin password (admins can join the game without knowing the game password)
- The maplist is often buggy, you should double-check its correctness.
- The admin console is pretty handy, you can send messages to the game (will be displayed as "WebAdmin: your text" ingame.

C: In-game admin console

Some important commands:

- "adminlogin <ADMINNAME> <ADMINPASS>" to login as an admin (adminname is not required if you just have a single admin set)
- "admin map <MAPNAME>?<OPTIONS<" to switch to another map
- "adminmenu" to see an in-game adminmenu
- "adminlogout" to logout

D: Installing .UT4MODs

Note: I have not tested this feature yet.

You can unpack *.ut4mod files with the command "ucc-bin umodunpack -x <filename>"

Credits

Tutorial created by Bastian "Bazzi" Grupe <bazzi@bazzinet.info>
Partially basing on the UT2003 linux dedicated server tutorial by Bullet.