I'm trying to find out if it is possible for me to set up a server running on my FreeBSD hosting account. But I am not sure what I need to do to compile the binaries for it, or how I would set up the server itself. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

If Linux compatibility is enabled on your host, the Linux server will run just fine (try it).

If not, it depends on whether you have root access or not.

I don't think it's enabled.. but I can ask if my host can enable something like that.

As for root access, anything I don't have my host can get to for me. Thanks. --c

Actually, if you do not pay for root access, you probably don't have it. Your host could then install the games/nexuiz port, or could install the Linux compatibility, or you could build the engine manually.

To build manually, get the enginesource zip file out of Nexuiz, extract it, and run "make sv-nexuiz" in its directory. You get a FreeBSD nexuiz-dedicated binary you can put in your Nexuiz directory.

Thanks for the reply.

In terms of root access, I "own" (lease) this entire server so I can pretty much do what I want with it.

It actually appears that I can run the Linux binaries! I tried a different one and it seemed to work.

I am not sure about the "games/nexuiz port", what does that mean?

As for ports:

portsnap fetch update
cd /usr/ports/sysutils/portupgrade
make install

is how to get started with the ports system (assuming you did install the ports collection when installing). You then can install new programs by

portinstall programname

and upgrade all by:

portsnap fetch update
portupgrade -Pwa

I'm a bit confused. Isn't the port number 26000? There is no "portsnap" command on this server, and I don't follow why the port needs to be "updated" (or in fact how you update a port anyway!)

Sorry to be dense.

Okay my host says this has something to do with a separate facility for automatically downloading software or something?

Is this something I need? It's all a bit over my head.

Incidentally, how do I get my server onto the Nexuiz server list that shows up under "Join"?

Thanks.

he's talking about the Ports Collection, a part of the package management infrastructure of FreeBSD.

Okay, but do I need that?

Thanks.

if you want to install software the easy way - yes.
have a look here:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports.html

Alright.. well, I've already got it installed anyway.

Can someone tell me what the mechanism is for getting onto Nexuiz server lists for people to "Join"?

Thanks for your replies, appreciated.

charlesk wrote:Can someone tell me what the mechanism is for getting onto Nexuiz server lists for people to "Join"?

enter "sv_public 1" into the server console (or even better, if you followed esteel's guide: add it to your server.cfg)

Well that's easy. Thanks again.

Well, I got the server to work (look for "Qeltar" in the server list.) But it's so bloody slow and laggy that it gives me a headache. Any ideas?

For me it for sure is laggy, I am 160ms apart from it. Can you try running top and check the server's CPU load?

Are you altobe?

Was running top, CPU use for nexuiz ranged 5-15%... and there is idle on the CPU so I don't think it's that.

I may not be able to actually keep this server up if it takes too many resources from that machine.. but I'll keep talking to the host. If there is anything I can do from a Nexuiz end to improve performance, please let me know. Thanks.

Try pinging the server's IP.

Maybe it is already too far from you in terms of routing...

try to do a traceroute and post the output of it - might give some information.

No, the pings are fine. This is my normal web host, I use it all the time for tons of things.

It's something on the server.

Post the traceroute anyway.

On your server... make sure HZ is set to 1000. Which FreeBSD are you using?

Traceroute is below. It's somewhat strange (I've never seen those huge numbers before.

What's HZ?

This is "FreeBSD 4.8-STABLE".

By the way I tried another server and also had these bad lagging issues so I am wondering if maybe there is some other issue here. But one other person said he found it slow too, so I am not sure what's going on.


1 10 ms 7 ms 7 ms 73.195.28.1
2 8 ms 7 ms 9 ms ge-4-1-ur01.bennington.vt.boston.comcast.net [68
.86.236.45]
3 12 ms 11 ms 9 ms te-8-4-ar01.springfield.ma.boston.comcast.net [6
8.87.147.18]
4 11 ms 12 ms 11 ms po-11-ar01.chartford.ct.hartford.comcast.net [68
.87.146.26]
5 4294967192 ms 53 ms 16 ms 68.86.90.69
6 20 ms 13 ms 14 ms 64.213.77.217
7 43 ms 4294967219 ms 52 ms PAIR-NETWORKS.ge-3-2-0.ar2.cle1.gblx.net [
146.82.33.170]
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 47 ms 54 ms 44 ms qs1072.pair.com [216.92.127.232]

Hmm. No, I just went to the other "beginner" server and it was fine.. mine is sluggish and giving me clocks even though the ping is good. I have no idea why.

how high is the overall cpu-load? you told us nexuiz is using up to 15%, but how much is eaten up by other processes?

There's pretty much always lots of idle time. Load averages are low:

% uptime
9:02PM up 465 days, 10:16, 2 users, load averages: 0.25, 0.44, 0.56

A pretty reliable server as you can see.

I just tried porting it all over to another server I have at the same company and it did the same thing.

I am almost certain that this is some sort of issue related to server priority, or something else with the hardware, not a net connectivity issue. But I'm still wondering if there is anything I can do in the Nexuiz server config to make it more efficient or use less resources or something.

Okay right now it is using 5% CPU, there is 75-90% free, but it's still sluggish. I don't get it. *shrug*

did you check your kern.hz? And which FreeBSD release is it?

i'd recommend updating FreeBSD to Version 6.2. Version 4.8 is from 2003....

Oh sorry, you wrote it is 4.8.

4.8 by default has bad multitasking timing, could be a severe problem for games. You can try putting

Code: Select all

kern.hz="1000"

in /boot/loader.conf and rebooting your system. But remember - if you do something wrong, it may not come up again. I hope you have a way ready to restore loader.conf in case of failure (like a boot CD you can use to mount the hard drive and edit the file back).

Well, just an update..

My web host is telling me they are concerned about security issues related to running this server... so I am dead in the water until they get back to me with more details over what it is they are concerned about.

Thanks.