Unnamed Server?

Mmmm... What's cookin in the kitchen?

Moderator: Lucifer

Post Reply
User avatar
KamP
Round Winner
Posts: 266
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2005 4:50 am
Location: Miami, Florida
Contact:

Unnamed Server?

Post by KamP »

Well i went for a couple rounds of swampland action, and well, i can't find it, look look look, and find something called Unnamed Server which happens to full. And full with swampland regualrs, to boot
So i go inside and it's swampland, hooray

But it sucks and the lag is unbearable

So, two questions

(A) Unnamed Server? What happenned to Swampland in 2.7.1?
(B) Lag? Damn it's bad... Luciferian, like they say...
(C) *BONUS* Is swampland ever getting the upgrade to 028?
Swampy
Core Dumper
Posts: 167
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2004 1:33 am
Location: Southern New Jersey

Post by Swampy »

(A) Unnamed Server? What happenned to Swampland in 2.7.1?
edit - I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but I installed the client on the server last night and it must have overwrote the script that launches the server and maybe that's why the server is unnamed now. I'll check that out later when everyone is off of the server.
(B) Lag? Damn it's bad... Luciferian, like they say...
Same as (A)
(C) *BONUS* Is swampland ever getting the upgrade to 028?
Here's the deal with this one:

The server started out as 2.7.0 and upgraded to 2.7.1 a few months after that came out. Since then, a lot of the original players have left the server and only a few remain. IMO, the players there now are either tolerant of the 180 ability or know of no other way of play. At this point I think it might not be a good idea to move the server up to 2.8.

That’s where Hell was supposed to come into play – but I haven’t upgraded that, either.

My most recent plan was to host Swampland, Shurnkland and toy around with Hell so that I could work out the 180 stuff and then morph it over to Swampland (basically, change any settings that aren’t the same as Swampland and rename it).

My focus has shifted to the performance issues that have been going on and away from the upgrades. As mentioned in other threads, something’s not right. I’ve been trying to get the servers running more efficiently and so far my attempts have been fruitless.

I lack a lot of the Linux fundamentals that are needed to fix these issues and I’m doing my best to grasp the innards of that OS and this game. Both have been a challenge for me to understand.

If I was asked for a wish list, here’s what I’d ask for:
How to:
- get the game to run without a X environment
- get the game to restart on it’s own after 24 hours and there’s no activity
- get a web server running that can display stats for the servers
- get the game to start during after a reboot

The answers are easy for many of you, as you’re likely to be thinking “cron jobs and init scripts”. But, I don’t know squat about either.
Last edited by Swampy on Fri Mar 03, 2006 1:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Z-Man
God & Project Admin
Posts: 11585
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: Cologne
Contact:

Post by Z-Man »

The tricky part about init scripts is that they are in a different folder for every distribution. For me (Gentoo), the scripts themselves are in /etc/init.d, and symbolic links to the scripts that should be run (that means the services that should be started) are in /etc/runlevels/default. Sometimes, the links don't have exactly the same name as the original script (mine have), but are called S01<scriptname> or something. You'll need to ask someone who uses the same distribution like you, probably Lucifer, where they are for you, and do the corresponding replacements in my instructions below.

You also may have to replace /usr/local with another prefix, but only if you did a non-default installation.
Swampy wrote:- get the game to run without a X environment
I don't know what you are referring to here, you are running the dedicated server, right? The one that starts in a console, not the client. If so, you can either shut down your X server completely. As root: "/etc/init.d/xdm stop" for stopping it once, and "rm /etc/runlevels/default/xdm" so it won't come up again after the next reboot.
Swampy wrote:- get the game to restart on it’s own after 24 hours and there’s no activity
That's the in-game DEDICATED_IDLE setting, put it to 24. IIRC, that was the default. Restarting a server in spite of activity, like I do with the test servers, is a bit trickier; I basically use a small script like

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
TARGET=some_file_included_from_everytime.cfg
echo "" > $TARGET
sleep 10000
echo "QUIT" > $TARGET
Swampy wrote:- get a web server running that can display stats for the servers
I'll have to delegate that question to those who actually do such a thing, like Tank and Lucifer. Back in the days when there was just one server, I just copied the var folder in a directory accessible from a web server...
Swampy wrote:- get the game to start during after a reboot
You have to place a link to the init script into the startup folder (the one that is /etc/runlevels/default for me). Our init script of 0.2.7.1 is at /usr/local/games/armagetronad-dedicated/rc.d/armagetronad.

I'd use

Code: Select all

ln -s /usr/local/games/armagetronad-dedicated/rc.d/armagetronad /etc/runlevels/default
to activate it on every boot.

Another thing that is easier than the link: usually, there is the script /etc/init.d/local that is executed on every boot. Adding

Code: Select all

/usr/local/games/armagetronad-dedicated/rc.d/armagetronad start
to an appropriate place there also should start the server.
User avatar
wrtlprnft
Reverse Outside Corner Grinder
Posts: 1679
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:42 am
Location: 0x08048000
Contact:

Post by wrtlprnft »

There's a poor man's method to run armagetronad on startup and to get it to restart in case it exists. Just put this into your /etc/inittab (at its end):

Code: Select all

arma:345:/usr/bin/armagetronad-dedicated 2>&1 >/dev/null
After adding this line do a kill -SIGHUP 1 to get init to reread the file.

WARNING: I didn't test this, but it should work.
There's no place like ::1
User avatar
Lucifer
Project Developer
Posts: 8640
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2004 3:32 pm
Location: Republic of Texas
Contact:

Post by Lucifer »

Ok, ummmmm, I was under the impression that Swampland was started from a terminal right now? I remember throwing in an init script at one point, and you stopped it because of lag complaints.

You should be able to upgrade to 0.2.8 just fine. With a rubber setting around 5 or so you should get pretty much the same gameplay. The new admin stuff and the working init script are well worth it. :)

Setting up a webserver to display stats under older Mandriva's was just a matter of installing apache2 (not apache, make sure it's apache2), and mod-php. Install from disc, it should work fine. If you're going to use php, of course.

If you upgrade to 0.2.8, then you'll want to set DEDICATED_IDLE to something like 4, and it's measured in hours. Or maybe you want it set to 1. Anyway, after that amount of time, the server shuts down. However, in 0.2.8, the init script actually works and uses a wrapper script that restarts the game if it shuts down. The end result is that if nobody is on your server for one hour, it'll restart and idle for an hour. If nobody shows up, it restarts again and idles again. If people are on it, it doesn't restart. Beats the hell out of a cronjob that shuts it down when players are playing.
Image

Be the devil's own, Lucifer's my name.
- Iron Maiden
gss
Average Program
Posts: 74
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 2:25 pm

Post by gss »

Forgive me for resurrecting such an old thread, but I have a silly question.

Why would one want the 2.8 server to shut down and restart after DEDICATED_IDLE hours? Why not just let it stay up?

- gss
User avatar
wrtlprnft
Reverse Outside Corner Grinder
Posts: 1679
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:42 am
Location: 0x08048000
Contact:

Post by wrtlprnft »

  • Makes it easier to update the server, you can just update the binary and the server will restart when it's empty without kicking people
  • If you're running nonstable versions they might have memory leaks, so restarting is better than running it for weeks and months
  • You can edit settings_custom.cfg if you don't want the settings to affect the game while a match is going so people can't whine at you.
There's no place like ::1
User avatar
Lucifer
Project Developer
Posts: 8640
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2004 3:32 pm
Location: Republic of Texas
Contact:

Post by Lucifer »

It also helps flush the ladder. Your ladder score is depreciated whenever the server restarts. :) (Of course, the only way to make the depreciation predictable is to stop/restart with a cronjob because DEDICATED_IDLE could make it restart every hour when nobody's playing, which is a lot more depreciation than restarting once a day. Fool with it and see what setting works for you)

Also, even stable versions sometimes have memory leaks and other issues that only show after running nonstop for many weeks and months. I don't think that's as much an issue anymore, but it is something we absolutely can't catch before release, the release cycle prevents it. So only in a .2 or .3 release can you expect such bugs to be known about, whether or not they're fixed is another issue.
Image

Be the devil's own, Lucifer's my name.
- Iron Maiden
gss
Average Program
Posts: 74
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 2:25 pm

Post by gss »

Makes it easier to update the server, you can just update the binary and the server will restart when it's empty without kicking people
OK, I suppose this makes sense for non-stable servers being updated often.
If you're running nonstable versions they might have memory leaks, so restarting is better than running it for weeks and months
Good point.
You can edit settings_custom.cfg if you don't want the settings to affect the game while a match is going so people can't whine at you.
Don't settings_custom.cfg updates push updates through to server each round?
Lucifer's ladder stuff
Dang; so never logging in again after building up a huge ladder score is pointless on your servers. ;)
User avatar
wrtlprnft
Reverse Outside Corner Grinder
Posts: 1679
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:42 am
Location: 0x08048000
Contact:

Post by wrtlprnft »

gss wrote:
You can edit settings_custom.cfg if you don't want the settings to affect the game while a match is going so people can't whine at you.
Don't settings_custom.cfg updates push updates through to server each round?
No, only if you put an “INCLUDE settings_custom.cfg” into everytime.cfg.
There's no place like ::1
Post Reply