About Installing Valve’s Linux Dedicated Game-Servers

info:Download steam-boiler to install steam and boiler.
author:Erik Southworth
version:49.1
revision:September 08, 2012
description:Linux Reference Manual

Classes of Dedicated Game-Servers

Valve’s game-servers have different engines they run on and older games evolve to use the newer game engines as time goes by. The servers can be classified into the following engine types:

hlds (Gold Source)
The original Half-Life Dedicated Server.
srcds (Source)
The Half-Life 2 Source Dedicated Server.
orange-box (ep2)
The latest OB Dedicated Server.
third-party mod
A modified Half-Life or Half-Life 2 Dedicated Server.
other
Someone else’s engine. Like ID’s Quake engine.

Game servers can sometimes be installed into the same directory if they share the same engine or base content. i.e. Counter-Strike: Source is now an orange-box game and can be installed alongside Team Fortress 2 which shares the same /hl2 base content for materials, models and sounds. But the original Counter-Strike must be installed in a separate folder.

Howto Determine the Server’s Class Type

The hlds based games will have a run-script file named hlds_run located in their installation. The run-script is used to start a game-server. Source based games will have a run-script file named srcd_run as well as do the orange-box based games but the orange-box games are clearly installed into a folder named /orangebox. Counter-Strike: Source now has it’s own dedicated server and is installed into a folder named /css.

Run-time Requirements

Valve’s game-server binaries are 32-bit executable. The Linux operating system must have 32-bit libraries installed to run. They will run even on 64-bit systems but the 32-bit libraries must be installed alongside the 64-bit ones. This is usually the case in most default Linux distros but not all. The steam program is 32-bit executable also. If steam won’t run, chances are the 32-bit libs are not installed.

Security

Warning

Linux has user accounts and file permissions to enforce security. Do NOT install game-servers using the superuser(root) account. Use a regular user account. Many distros do not even have a root account by default but use the sudo command to raise privileges for authorized users as needed. If using root to run a game-server gets the box owned by a cracker; heed this warning. Also, do NOT give away logons to anyone whom you can not reach with a long wooden stick.