Dedicated Server Setup on Linode

Ut2004-box Recently, I decided to rebuild my Unreal Tournament 2004 server on a new platform. The latest Linux versions presented a few challenges, and it took a lot of time and research to get everything working.

Here I’ve tried to document as much as possible to preserve the knowledge and share with others.

These instructions are specifically for a Linode virtual server running Ubuntu 14.04, although most of the setup is similar on other systems.

Server “Hardware”

Using a virtual server at Linode.com

Linode 2048 Plan
24GB DISK
1 CPU Core
2TB XFER
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Profile, Latest 64-bit (4.5.0-x86_64)

UT2004 Server + Bonus Pack

As far as I know, this is the most recent dedicated server for Unreal Tournament 2004. The Unreal Tournament 2004 Server v3339 server pack contains all the needed files for running a UT 2004 game server. The Bonus Pack contains additional game maps and add-ons.

Download: Unreal Tournament 2004 Server v3339 + Bonus Pack

Pre-Installation Tasks

Create a user account for the UT server to run.

Do not run the dedicated server as root or any other system account. Best to use a normal user account to run the server.

sudo adduser ut2004

Setup and enable the firewall

Using Uncomplicated Firewall to set up the rules shown below. Read about The Uncomplicated Firewall (ufw) if you want to learn more. I think it’s a great improvement over the old way of messing with iptables.

To check the status of UFW:

sudo ufw status verbose

Allow only SSH, http(s) and UT2004 Server ports:

sudo ufw default deny

sudo ufw allow http

sudo ufw allow https

sudo ufw allow ssh

sudo ufw allow 7777/udp

sudo ufw allow 7778/udp

sudo ufw allow 7787/udp

sudo ufw allow 7788/udp

sudo ufw allow 28902/tcp

sudo ufw allow 8080/tcp

sudo ufw enable

Install legacy GCC library

New versions of Linux, particularly 64-bit, lack some old libraries. More info about it at debian.org

Download the 32-bit GCC library libstdc++5_3.3.6-20~lucid1_i386.deb

The libstdc++ library goes in the /usr/lib directory. Use the below procedure:

#Make a temp folder
mkdir tmp

# Unpack file into tmp
dpkg-deb -R libstdc++5_3.3.6-20~lucid1_i386.deb tmp

# Look in tmp then find and copy libstdc++5.0.7 to /usr/lib
cp libstdc++.so.5 /usr/lib

# Make a link to the lib inside the /usr/lib dir
libstdc++.so.5 -> libstdc++.so.5.0.7

Need 32-bit compatibility

On some systems, you have to add extra libraries and such to support 32-bit programs and provide files and libraries used by the dynamically linked ucc-bin executable.

32-bit compatibility libraries

Install the 32-bit compatibility libraries to run 32-bit programs normally. Read more about it here.

apt-get install lib32z1 lib32ncurses5 lib32bz2-1.0

Multi Libs

Enabling the multilib repository allows the user to run and build 32-bit applications on 64-bit installations.

apt-get install gcc-multilib

Install

Unpack Files

Unpack the UT Server files in the ut2004 home directory. This will create a folder named “ut-server” with all the server files inside. After unpacking the files, verify the permissions and ownership are correct.

gzip -d dedicated-server-3339-bonuspack.tar.gz

tar -xvf dedicated-server-3339-bonuspack.tar.gz

Verify File Permission and Ownership

# Ownership

sudo chown -R ut2004.ut2004 ./*

# For Directories

find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

# For Files

find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

# ucc-bin must be executable

chmod 755 System/ucc-bin

Custom Startup Script

Download the startup script and put it in the ut2004 home directory. Then chmod the file so it is executable.

chmod 744 UT2004ServerStart

The startup script is simply an easy way to quickly start up a game server.

Usage examples:

Start a Death Match Server: ./UT2004ServerStart DM
View help: ./UT2004ServerStart –help

The server log output is directed to ucc-bin.out.

Custom UT2004.ini File

To get started, use this custom UT2004.ini file and change these lines as appropriate for your installation:

[IpDrv.HTTPDownload]
RedirectToURL=http://YOUR.WEB.SERVER/~ut2004/maps/

[Engine.GameReplicationInfo]
ServerName=My Awesome UT Server
ShortName=Yeah
ServerRegion=0
AdminName=MeIsAdmin
AdminEmail=
MessageOfTheDay=Hello

[Engine.AccessControl]
AdminPassword=YouShouldChangeThis

A good resource for creating an ini file is at The Unreal Admin Page

Get a Server CD-Key

You need a CD Key, to advertise your server and collect stats.

Fill out the form, and you’ll receive a CD key by email. To install the key on your server, do the following:

echo "SRVER-YOUR-CDKEY-HERE" > ut-server/System/cdkey

Web Admin

The web administration page is quite useful for managing the UT server. The default URL is http://your.server:8080

Edit/Create System/XAdmin.ini file to change the admin username and password.

[XAdmin.xAdminConfigIni]
AdminUsers=(AdminName="utAdmin",Password="utPassword",Privileges=,Groups=("Admin"),ManagedGroups=)
AdminGroups=(GroupName="Admin",Privileges=,GameSecLevel=255)
AdminGroups=(GroupName="MatchSetup",Privileges="Xm",GameSecLevel=240)

Setup Public Downloads

When a client connects to a game for which they do not have the game maps and other files, they’ll have to download them from your server. The steps outlined here show how to compress files and use Apache’s user mod for distribution.

Add Download Files

1. Make a public_html directory in the ut2004 home dir: ~/public_html

2. Then make directories like ~/public_html/maps and ~/public_html/temp

3. Go through each of the UT2004 folders and copy these files into the public_html/temp directory:

.ukx – Animations
.ut2 – Maps
.uax – Sounds
.usx – StaticMeshes
.int – System
.u – System
.utx – Textures

4. Compress the files as shown below. Note -nohomedir is important, or else it fails.

cd ~/ut-server/System

for file in ~/public_html/temp/*; do ./ucc-bin compress -nohomedir $file; done

5. Finally, move all the compressed files into /public_html/maps folder.

Activate Apache’s userdir module

The userdir module is what sets up the option for you to use user directories with Apache.

cd /etc/apache2/mods-available/

a2enmod userdir

service apache2 restart

Fixes

GameSpy is No More

To play online, a client needs to connect to a directory server to look up other servers that are hosting games. This master server was managed by GameSpy until 2014. Afterward, Epic Games maintained the service until January 24, 2023. Now, the only way to get game server lists is to find a master server run by the Unreal community. See the Masterserver Guide for more detail. There’s also OpenSpy which aims to be an open source gamespy clone.

First, try adding this to the UT2004.ini file:

[IpDrv.MasterServerLink]
MasterServerList=(Address="utmaster.openspy.net",Port=28902)

If that doesn’t work, an alternative server is at 80.57.211.130, so put the following into /etc/hosts file:

80.57.211.130 master0.gamespy.com

Start the Game Server!

Finally, you are ready to start playing. Now, switch to the ut2004 user go into the home directory, and enter:

./UT2004ServerStart DM

Once that starts, use tail -f ucc-bin.out to view the server’s startup sequence. If all is well, you should see some output like this:

Executing Class Engine.ServerCommandlet
Missing Class Class Editor.TransBuffer
Browse: DM-CarPark-DCSE-XL-2K4?Name=Player?Class=Engine.Pawn?Character=Jakob?team=255?game=XGame.xDeathMatch
Collecting garbage
Purging garbage
Garbage: objects: 35125->35121; refs: 387137
Game class is 'xDeathMatch'
Bringing Level DM-CarPark-DCSE-XL-2K4.myLevel up for play (25) appSeconds: 1.766319...
Loading Admins & Groups
Kick and Ban Privileges Loaded
Maps & Game Privileges Loaded
Admins & Groups Management Loaded
Extra Privileges Loaded
GameInfo::InitGame : bEnableStatLogging False
UdpServerQuery(crt): Port 7787 successfully bound.
Resolving master0.gamespy.com...
Defaulting to false
Resolving ut2004master2.epicgames.com...
Loading Available Maps
Loading Game Types
xWebAdmin.UTServerAdmin Initialized on port 8080
MasterServerUplink: Resolved ut2004master2.epicgames.com as 199.255.40.171.
Resolved master0.gamespy.com (109.71.69.254)
UdpGameSpyUplink: Master Server is master0.gamespy.com:27900
UdpGameSpyUplink: Port 7788 successfully bound.
MasterServerUplink: Connection to ut2004master2.epicgames.com established.
Approval APPROVED
Master server requests heartbeat 0 with code 1176
Master server requests heartbeat 1 with code 1176
Master server requests heartbeat 2 with code 1176
Master server assigned our MatchID: 0
Client netspeed is 10000
New Player Nargonne id=212934ijhjhjh0c96f1b7a779a2f09e
START MATCH

References

Liandri Archives – Tons of good stuff here
~~EEBlog.com – Setup Linux dedicated UT2004 server~~ (Defunct site)
TweakGuides.com – Useful tweaks and explanations for .ini files
UT Zone, DE – Many good map downloads and other information
OpenSpy – Community master server support
OldUnreal – Wiki for UT2004 and other Unreal engine-based games

Table of Contents:

Server “Hardware”

UT2004 Server + Bonus Pack

Pre-Installation Tasks

Create a user account for the UT server to run.

Setup and enable the firewall

Install legacy GCC library

Need 32-bit compatibility

32-bit compatibility libraries

Multi Libs

Install

Unpack Files

Custom Startup Script

Custom UT2004.ini File

Get a Server CD-Key

Web Admin

Setup Public Downloads

Add Download Files

Activate Apache’s userdir module

Fixes

GameSpy is No More

Start the Game Server!