Linux Server Installation Guide

Table Of Contents

If your server is behind a router/firewall you are going to have configure port-forwarding and open some ports in your firewall. Look at my other tutorial "Linux Server: Networking and Mods". It goes over Port-Forwarding, AMX Mod X installation, Firewall port opening and some other things.

1. What You will Need.

• A little bit of Linux knowledge.
  

  I assume that you have successfully installed your distribution and understand the basic CLI commands that I will be using throughout the tutorial. Commands will be in blue. You should at least understand basic networking, and know how to configure the firewall for your certain distribution. Please note that the Screenshots I use are from OpenSuSe 10.2 and that your distribution may look different. This tutorial expects you are physically in front of your server, though the commands could be used when SSHing to a commercial server.
  

• A capable Computer.
  

  Because Linux Computers tend to run better and more stable than Windows systems, the hardware requirements are lower. The most critical things are Processor Speed and RAM. There is no special formula for calculating hardware requirements but I run a 12-slot server on a AMD 750mhz/512mb RAM + AMXX with no problems. If you want to use a GUI (like KDE/Gnome) I recommend installing an old 32-64mb Video Card to help keep the load off of the CPU and RAM. Another thing that can drastically increase server performance is something called a RAID array. That is a whole different story, but just know that it does help a lot if you have the resources. (I recommend you check this tutorial out.
  

• The HLDS Updatetool binary file and Admin rights (Root/Su)
  

  Depending on your Distribution, you may or may not need to use the root user, but for most it is much easier to just use the root user to install the server and sudo to start it. You are going to want to download the hldsupdatetool.bin only from Steampowered.com, other sites tend to have old versions, and that means more hassle for you. Note that Steam is no longer distributed as a tar.gz itself, Valve has decided to use binaries instead. If you have a Steam.tar.gz file, it is old. Also, a Steam account is no longer needed to run a server.
  

2. Getting Started.

Obtaining and Installing hldsupdatetool.bin

1. First of all, gain root access by typing
   su
   and then supplying the password.
   
   
   
2. Create a directory in which you want to keep the files, and run the server from.
   
   

   mkdir /hlds

cd /hlds
   
   
   

3. Download this file, and move it to your hlds directory. Alternately, you may use this command to download it via console.
   
   

   wget http://storefront.steampowered.com/download/hldsupdatetool.bin
   
   
   

4. Now you will have to modify the file in order for it to be executable. You may change it via a filemanager or use this command to make it executable.
   
   

   chmod +x hldsupdatetool.bin
   

5. Just execute the file.
   

   ./hldsupdatetool.bin
   
   

   Type in 'yes' to continue with the installation.
   
   

6. You should now have 3 files in your hlds directory. The hldsupdatetool.bin, a readme and a steam program. Use the same command to make Steam executable. Then run it with the argument as shown below.
   
   

   chmod +x steam
./steam -game cstrike
   
   
   You will see a list of files being downloaded. It may take awhile if the Steam Network is congested, but on my machine it took about 10-15 minutes. In all it's around 300mb of files.
   
   
   

   Voila! Move on to the next section.
   

3. Starting the Server.

Executing the server script.

• Now that you have all the files installed you will want to execute the run-script.
  

  ./hlds_run -game cstrike
  
  

• That is the most basic way to start a CS server, but you will want to add certain arguments to specify the way it starts, like what map it should start on, time limits, and many other things. Here are some of the basic ones:
  
  
  
  +ip [your IP address]
  
  Used when a computer is behind a gateway device (like a router).Make sure that you use your internal IP if you are behind a router.
  
  
  
  +port [port number]
  Used to specify which port number the server should run on. The default is 27015. Servers can be run on different ports on the same machine.
  
  
  
  +maxplayers [number of clients]
  Self-explanatory. Note that bots take up client spots, along with HLTV.
  
  
  
  +map [name of starting map]
  Map to start the server with.
  
  
  

• You can use almost any CVAR (Variable) when you start the server. A great list of CVARs can be found at HLDS 101. Note that you can use these while the server is running to change settings. Also, certain CVARs can be placed into the server.cfg file. This file is executed each time the server starts.
  
  
  
  So if I wanted to start my server on cs_office with 16 player slots I would use a line like this.
  
  
  ./hlds_run -game cstrike +maxplayers 16 +map cs_office
  
  
  
  Or, you could send the output to a file.
  
  
  ./hlds_run -game cstrike +maxplayers 16 +map cs_office > server.log
  
  
  
  

4. Conclusion