Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead - Linux Standalone Server 1.56 BETA

[Maruk]

Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead - Linux Standalone Server 1.56 BETA (ftp://downloads.bistudio.com/arma2.com/update/a2oa-server-1.56.76188.tar.bz2) is available now.

Note that it requires Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead to be updated to version 1.56 first in order to run properly.

Please provide us with feedback to this topic.



Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead - Linux Standalone Server 1.55 BETA
===============================================================

Copyrigt (c) 2010 Bohemia Interactive Studio. All rights reserved.

For more information please visit
http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_Dedicated_Server


Installation instructions:
==========================

1. Following programs must have been installed on your Linux-box:
tar, gcc. Optional: md5sum (for setup integrity check)

1a. On some verions of Linux (this was reported for RedHat 9
and Gentoo linux 2.4.20) the NSCD deamon must be installed to
run ArmA 2 server successfully. Caching of DNS would be sufficient.

2. Copy the whole "ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead" directory from Windows
to some Linux-directory (arma2arrowhead). DON'T DO ANY DATA CONVERSIONS
(even "dos2unix" translation of text files is not necessary).
Example: you can use PKZIP (WinZip, PowerArchiver, etc.) on
Windows and "unzip" on Linux.
Don't use upper case letters in the ArmA2 directory name
(/home/bob/arma2arrowhead will be good, /home/bob/ArmA2ArrowHead
may cause some troubles).
ArmA2 directory should contain subdirectories "Addons", "Bin",
"Campaigns", etc.

3. Copy the "server-x.xx.tar.gz" (x.xx is version number) file into
the arma2arrowhead directory. Unpack and install it with commands:

arma2arrowhead$ tar -xjf server-x.xx.tar.bz2
arma2arrowhead$ ./install

Watch the messages - they will inform you whether your installation
is successful.

4. Dedicated server can be started in foreground:

arma2arrowhead$ ./server

Or in background:

o$ nohup ./server > out.txt 2> err.txt &
[1] <pid>

5. Running server can be stopped by executing:

$ kill -s SIGINT <pid>

Where <pid> is process-id of mother server thread (printed out in
"nohup" command).

6. ArmA2 ArrowHead server has a feature: command-line parameter
"-pid=<pid_file>". It causes creation of <pid_file> with
PID of root ArmA2 process. If IP port specified in "-port=<nn>"
parameter is busy (in usage), ArmA2 will terminate immediately
and <pid_file> won't be written..

7. The "arma2server" script is provided for automatic server
start/restart/status query/etc. Please be sure to edit
CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS in lines 12 to 18 !
After this is done, install (hard-link?) the script into
"/etc/rc.d/init.d/arma2server" file. After that it can be managed
by "chkconfig" (see info/man).

[scale]

Question about server data:

The server data, must be include:

BAF lite
PMC lite

OR (i have buyed both at sprocket)

BAF Full
PMC Full

to work perfect?

[Dwarden]

For servers and DLC data You must use only Lite variant !!

[byteslam]

to be honest, I am really tired of this.
BI releases an update, I have to install ArmaII, ArmaOA and the latest patch to get a clean version....the version I use for play which includes the full patches does not work (always the yellow question mark in the server list)

Is it so complicated to release a server version (the Linux one) with everything included?

This game lives from the community support but I am really get pissed off about the BI update /upgrade policy.

[bravo1romeo]

The issue is the Update Patchs are for windows, and they patch the .pbo files with updates, but there is no equivalent patch for linux!
So to update linux I have to first update on windows, which is quick and only requires downloads the size of the patch ~300MB But then I have to upload to my server, every file which has changed in it's entirety, which last time equated to over 4000MB of uploading and since my upload rate is much lower than my download rate it took me almost 20 hours to get my server updated!

Can't a similar .pbo updater be released for linux so I can just execute it from ssh?

[scale]

to be honest, I am really tired of this.
BI releases an update, I have to install ArmaII, ArmaOA and the latest patch to get a clean version....the version I use for play which includes the full patches does not work (always the yellow question mark in the server list)

Is it so complicated to release a server version (the Linux one) with everything included?

This game lives from the community support but I am really get pissed off about the BI update /upgrade policy.

Better:

I uploaded 1 week the gameserver data to linux box via 786kbits DSL.
Every time the files (with filezilla) are on box one or more files are corrupted (don't know why).
Now i make a packing the 14 GB to a tar bzip2 file, half uploading and a patch is here :mad:

I buyed sprocket Arma 2 combined version, but only a setup.exe for windows... no wget :(


But sun is coming up, i work to put the linux dedicated Server fast as possible here for free download nexttime: http://cgl.clanmeets.de

[IceBreakr]

Same problem with out remote server... we're damn tired of updating all files and uploading for hours or days, when we play 3-5 hours per week (training) :)

[=[A*C]=NicO]

Ok I have to fire up md5sum et let see what has changed... A 3 to 4 hours process, hum well hope this is worth it.
Can we have a changelog, just to help us monitor improvements towards 1.55? Anything new about multithreading ? We rent a CoreI5 750 (4 physical cores) with 8G RAM, but server's FPS oscillate between 10 and 20...
Typical load while playing (1.54 & 1.55) :
http://serveur.air-commando.org/public/Charge_serveur.JPG
Hope this point will be improved!

So I'll make tests as soon as everyone in my team has updated their game, and give you a report : 1.54-5 vs 1.56.

[byteslam]

Better:

I uploaded 1 week the gameserver data to linux box via 786kbits DSL.
Every time the files (with filezilla) are on box one or more files are corrupted (don't know why).
Now i make a packing the 14 GB to a tar bzip2 file, half uploading and a patch is here :mad:

I buyed sprocket Arma 2 combined version, but only a setup.exe for windows... no wget :(


But sun is coming up, i work to put the linux dedicated Server fast as possible here for free download nexttime: http://cgl.clanmeets.de

the upload is solvable with rsync --fuzzy, in fact you have only 116 MB for the last update which are really new.

rsync -avzyh –delete /home/arma/arma2server/* armauser@<hidden>:/home/arma/arma2server/

My concern is more the different patches etc. I can not use my current ARMA version with BAF and PMC. the server crashed immediately. you have to remove folders but you need the light patches ... so all the time, BI comes with a new update, I have to do a clean re-installation without anything in it...and my question is, why does the server not come with these 116 MB files (maybe from a p2p source) and that’s it? why is this process so complicated?

[=[A*C]=NicO]

rsync -avzyh –delete /home/arma/arma2server/* armauser@<hidden>:/home/arma/arma2server/

Is rsync able to work with lowered case filenames on the server ? The manpage of rsync that "fuzzy" option makes it work with similar filenames if it doesn't find the same. That would be really nice, no need to manually determine which files has changed...



why does the server not come with these 116 MB files (maybe from a p2p source) and that’s it? why is this process so complicated?

Very good question - plus this file could be used for both Windows and Linux dedicated. Clearly we only own personnal xDSL or cable lines, with a very limited upload. Download is ok, but upload....

[byteslam]

=NicO;1801672']Is rsync able to work with lowered case filenames on the server ? The manpage of rsync that "fuzzy" option makes it work with similar filenames if it doesn't find the same. That would be really nice, no need to manually determine which files has changed...


Yes, I use it all the time...give it a try and you will be surprised.




Very good question - plus this file could be used for both Windows and Linux dedicated. Clearly we only own personnal xDSL or cable lines, with a very limited upload. Download is ok, but upload....

I think BI sees the Linux version as a needed evil, that’s why we get only betas and servers who crashing with segmentation faults instead of error handling...

[=[A*C]=NicO]

Yes, I use it all the time...give it a try and you will be surprised.

I'll try this tonight to update our server, thanks for the piece of advice ^^



I think BI sees the Linux version as a needed evil, that’s why we get only betas and servers who crashing with segmentation faults instead of error handling...

That's what I understood, but really there are only advantages of running a Linux box vs Windows. Cheap, reliable, easy to administer, fine grain for config, many tools for different needs, bash scripts etc... (no troll inside)
I just can't imagine running Windows on our server. But a lot of dedicated server games today won't run or badly on Linux, that's really sad.

PS : we do not encounter so many crashes (it mainly happens when a guy joins the server with a bad modset or outdated mods), but the overall performance are way behind the Windows ones

[{SF} Astra]

Thanks for Linux Files.

I know, upload of (updated) game files is a pain but using rsync helps you really out.

I think we all can be glad having Linux Binaries at all and even at (or lets say around) patchday.
There've been other times allready.

[scale]

All repositorys uptodate at cgl (http://cgl.clanmeets.de) and working.
It's one mouseclick to install a Arma2 Server and hold it uptodate.

[=WFL= Sgt Bilko]

For servers and DLC data You must use only Lite variant !!Wait! So if we want to run BAF/PMC on a Linux (or windows) server, we have to upload the Lite version of BAF/PMC?

Where do we get the Lite versions from once we installed Full BAF/PMC on our normal gaming computers?

And how does that relate to bisign files for clients running full resp. lite version?

[byteslam]

Wait! So if we want to run BAF/PMC on a Linux (or windows) server, we have to upload the Lite version of BAF/PMC?

Where do we get the Lite versions from once we installed Full BAF/PMC on our normal gaming computers?

And how does that relate to bisign files for clients running full resp. lite version?

You need to delete the BAF and PMC folder before upload to the server.
But to be sure I recommend to make a clean install of ARMA+ARMAOA and the latest patch...and upload this.

---------- Post added at 09:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:28 PM ----------


All repositorys uptodate at cgl (http://cgl.clanmeets.de) and working.
It's one mouseclick to install a Arma2 Server and hold it uptodate.

On managed server, but we talk about root servers, which is less expensive and you have your own hardware....so do not compare this.

[=WFL= Sgt Bilko]

So BAF/PMC Lite is included in pbo's in "Common" folder?

Still don't understand how the signed files will work with players using BAF full.

[bravo1romeo]

So BAF/PMC Lite is included in pbo's in "Common" folder?

Still don't understand how the signed files will work with players using BAF full.

Yes they are included and all BI pbos use the bi.bikey so client side files auth regardless of what the server side ones are.

[djczing]

Loaded up 1.56 to my modest Linux server and so far, its looking real good.

AI movement is very smooth (no warping), and performance is generally much better -- and my FPS remains stable.

I dont have PMC yet, but am contemplating...

In any case, nice job BIS.

[=WFL= Sgt Bilko]

Yes they are included and all BI pbos use the bi.bikey so client side files auth regardless of what the server side ones are.Alrighty, sounds good - thanks!

[Schuldi]

I am currently testing in a local virtual machine (makes moving files easier ;) )
now i am confronted with the following message when starting the server:


:/home/arma/arma2ca# ./server
Item str_disp_server_control listed twice
18:34:05 Dedizierter Host erstellt.
Error context b÷Håb÷ÈÞ´ÈÞ´
File , line 0: '.H': 'å' encountered instead of '='
Critical:Destroying running thread!


every needed packages are installed, as the 1.55 server ran gracefully.


EDIT:
somehow the problem occures only when started without startscript. when started with the script everything is fine.
strange but who understands the ArmA2 Linux files ^^

i "uploaded" the whole patched directory and use the binary provided in the first post of this thread.

[byteslam]

I am currently testing in a local virtual machine (makes moving files easier ;) )
now i am confronted with the following message when starting the server:


:/home/arma/arma2ca# ./server
Item str_disp_server_control listed twice
18:34:05 Dedizierter Host erstellt.
Error context b÷Håb÷ÈÞ´ÈÞ´
File , line 0: '.H': 'å' encountered instead of '='
Critical:Destroying running thread!


every needed packages are installed, as the 1.55 server ran gracefully.


EDIT:
somehow the problem occures only when started without startscript. when started with the script everything is fine.
strange but who understands the ArmA2 Linux files ^^

i "uploaded" the whole patched directory and use the binary provided in the first post of this thread.
if you start the server just with ./server you will run into this trouble, you need to overhand always the parameters. But why you start it without the startscript?

[=[A*C]=NicO]

if you start the server just with ./server you will run into this trouble, you need to overhand always the parameters. But why you start it without the startscript?

Running directly from the binary can be interesting if you experience a startup crash / nostart, but you have to state basic parameters (check the startup script - they are defined there).

IE (just an example, do not remember everything) :
./server -server -config=server.cfg -profile=xxxx -port=2302

[Schuldi]

ok i get this

strange thing is that it always worked with previous versions, the way i posted it so i was confused... but well there's no real problem ;)

[byteslam]

Server segfault:
[584012.414021] server[17344]: segfault at c ip 8f666cd sp f73eb3a0 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
[675611.300426] server[18398]: segfault at c ip 8f666cd sp f73703a0 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]<6>server[18399]: segfault at c71eb7d0 ip c71eb7d0 sp f736035c error 15
[675611.300426]
[770021.009155] server[21706]: segfault at 8 ip 8 sp f772f20c error 14 in server[8048000+100b000]

[Overlord]

So how is the current status of Linux 1.56?
How does it perform compared to 1.54? Exept PMC (Lite).

[=[A*C]=NicO]

The same as 1.54, even sometimes worst.
Tested both Vanilla and with ACE.

Don't expect anything new about performances. Still stuck on 1 core -> cpu limited.

[Overlord]

=NicO;1807490']The same as 1.54, even sometimes worst.
Tested both Vanilla and with ACE.
So there's no major benefits to upgrade? Still no fix for MP weapon selection in briefing?

Don't expect anything new about performances. Still stuck on 1 core -> cpu limited.
Do you have 1 core server or is it a setup problem? I run 1.54 on dualcore, server's more than willing to use both.

[=[A*C]=NicO]

So there's no major benefits to upgrade? Still no fix for MP weapon selection in briefing?

Don't know what you"re talking about, but is this a client side or server side problem? From what I can tell you, client side performances are better in 1.54 than in 1.55/56. So the overall experience is best on 1.54, but you will probably run into trouble if you use the latest ACE for example (if you're on vanilla, stay with 1.54).




Do you have 1 core server or is it a setup problem? I run 1.54 on dualcore, server's more than willing to use both.

Yep true, we own a corei5 750 (4 cores), and all of them are used. But the main thread of the game uses 100% of 1 core, while the others are quite unused. We ran several test : Windows dedi vs Linux dedi, and the multithreading on Linux is awful compared to Windows. That's a known issue that will probably not be fixed. The point is that we don't want to use an MS box for several reasons, so we're stuck with a bad dedi...
Take a look at an ingame typical load :
http://serveur.air-commando.org/public/Charge_serveur.JPG

[Dwarden]

please read the bold text
http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1797139&postcount=35


ArmA 2 can use up to 31 cores in theory, but experiments have shown that with most scenes the gain above 4 cores is small and above 8 cores unmeasurable.

The explanation is Amdahl's law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl's_law) -
only parts of the application is using all cores.

See Real Virtuality Going Multicore blog (http://www.bistudio.com/index.php/company/developers-blog/91-real-virtuality-going-multicore).

---------- Post added at 13:58 ---------- Previous post was at 13:54 ----------

In build 76122 and newer the default for dualcores will be changed to -exThreads=3 based on user feedback.

We have also changed the cpu core detection, therefore depending on how many logical cpus are present, default -cpuCount values will be as follows:

1 1
...
6 6
7 7
8 4
9 4
10 5
11 5
12 6
13 6
14 7
....

Some day hopefully we will find a time to provide a proper HT detection, but until then I think the above provides quite reasonable default settings.

so dont worry
if there is possibility or way how to improve engine multicore performance it will be tried and implement if successful

[=[A*C]=NicO]

I remember I heard that it was an issue with multithreading librairies, do you confirm? If this is it - it will be hard to solve, right?

[MiBF]

I think, it is a memory leak: http://goo.gl/ZJqJu
Server build 1.56.76188
Debian 2.6.32-5-amd64

I added a ticket on dev-heaven (http://dev-heaven.net/issues/15696)

[Overlord]

OK, thanks guys, also to Dwarden/ Suma for a reasonable explanation of how cores is used. Make sense in a way too... :)

[byteslam]

I think, it is a memory leak: http://goo.gl/ZJqJu
Server build 1.56.76188
Debian 2.6.32-5-amd64

I added a ticket on dev-heaven (http://dev-heaven.net/issues/15696)

However, the server is unstable, more unstable then the previous releases

kernel: [1453211.193560] server[2640]: segfault at a38dea00 ip 817e75b sp ff9291f0 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]

This happens if a player with an ver 1.04 tries to connect... even if signature check is on.
There are some Trolls who only connecting to full servers to crash them...

[MiBF]

kernel: [1453211.193560] server[2640]: segfault at a38dea00 ip 817e75b sp ff9291f0 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
if it helps, I'll add more segfaults:



Dec 3 13:06:37 g13 kernel: [587359.773295] server[4847]: segfault at 11 ip 00000000088b6103 sp 00000000ff81f380 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 3 16:07:29 g13 kernel: [598207.449113] server[7599]: segfault at 3c ip 00000000085045c4 sp 00000000ffd41a90 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 4 23:06:26 g13 kernel: [709677.923239] server[7530]: segfault at c ip 0000000008f666cd sp 00000000f7392370 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 4 23:07:27 g13 kernel: [709738.957386] server[10472]: segfault at c ip 0000000008f666cd sp 00000000f73c3370 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 4 23:07:41 g13 kernel: [709752.101370] server[10546]: segfault at 0 ip (null) sp 00000000f76ea1dc error 14 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 4 23:08:09 g13 kernel: [709780.863954] server[10577]: segfault at c ip 0000000008f666cd sp 00000000f73f6370 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 4 23:29:57 g13 kernel: [711087.718161] server[10620]: segfault at c ip 0000000008f666cd sp 00000000f7410370 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 5 07:33:47 g13 kernel: [740087.862639] server[20107]: segfault at 0 ip 000000000835af02 sp 00000000ffff4360 error 6 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 5 14:48:05 g13 kernel: [766134.053571] server[11979]: segfault at 0 ip 0000000008a02804 sp 00000000ffc57d10 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 5 15:41:52 g13 kernel: [769359.644545] server[20070]: segfault at 3c ip 00000000085045c4 sp 00000000ffee8580 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 6 00:00:24 g13 kernel: [799258.763394] server[20162]: segfault at 0 ip 0000000008a6b2e3 sp 00000000ffaccd10 error 6 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 8 11:56:36 g13 kernel: [1014883.413278] server[9998]: segfault at 3c ip 00000000085045c4 sp 00000000ffd10700 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 9 02:04:26 g13 kernel: [1065730.663182] server[13989]: segfault at c ip 0000000008f666cd sp 00000000f737e370 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 9 20:37:02 g13 kernel: [1132440.498626] server[14338]: segfault at 9 ip 000000000862d93b sp 00000000fffdc8c0 error 6 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 11 04:34:32 g13 kernel: [1247421.819694] server[5547]: segfault at 0 ip 00000000081c0690 sp 00000000ffe00680 error 6 in server[8048000+100b000]
Dec 11 20:35:22 g13 kernel: [1305029.112209] server[5621]: segfault at 6c ip 00000000082f4de0 sp 00000000ffd20cc4 error 4 in server[8048000+100b000]

and I have a few big dumps (about 700mb) - I can upload it in some place if it needs.

[=[A*C]=NicO]

please read the bold text
http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1797139&postcount=35

so dont worry
if there is possibility or way how to improve engine multicore performance it will be tried and implement if successful

How can you explain that multithreading is really better on Windows?
Amdahl's law is the same on both platform...

[Sira]

Does anyone know how to fix this error?


Warning Message: No challenge value was received from the master server.
GameSpy QR2 error: 5, No challenge value was received from the master server.

This posts mentioned the same error:
http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=74044
But has no solution.

reportingIP = "arma2oapc.master.gamespy.com";

EDIT: I got it working twice but the server dies as soon as I connect, and above problem still reoccurs randomly.

Any help is appreciated, thx.

[Overlord]

Anyone know if there is any difference (performance/ stability etc.) between 32 and 64 bits Linux OS or should I assume 32 runs better (as in M$)? RAM ain't an issue here.

[Sira]

Anyone know if there is any difference (performance/ stability etc.) between 32 and 64 bits Linux OS or should I assume 32 runs better (as in M$)? RAM ain't an issue here.

64bit is always better but also more prone to cause problems eventually with such a poorly supported software like the arma2 server.

[VisceralSyn]

64bit OS's use ram more efficiently than 32bit OSs, as well as can address more, thats not OS specific. Which makes 64bit OS's perform and scale better than 32bit OS's.

ArmA² is not poorly supported, its poorly coded.

...Syn...