A quick guide how to setup Space Engineers Dedicated server on a Linux box with Wine

se_server_linux.md

Ubuntu 14.04/14.10 SpaceEngineers Dedicated Server

Here's a quick guide how to run SpaceEngineers Dedicated Server on Ubuntu with Wine

Requirements

• A copy of Space Engineers
• A Windows box
• A Linux box running Ubuntu 14.04 or 14.10 (It'll probably work on other distros, YMMV)

Step #1: Install & configure Wine1.6 and dependencies

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wine1.6
winetricks -q dotnet40
rm -r ~/.wine
WINEARCH=win32 wine wineboot

Step #2: Copy necessary files to Linux box

Server binaries

There are multiple ways for transfering files, easiets would probably be using SCP, WinSCP works well for that. You'll want to transfer the DedicatedServer.zip file found in

[Steam install directory]\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers\Tools

Unpack the zip somewhere inside

~/.wine/drive_c/users/$(whoami)/

World and config files

The easiest way to do this is to just generate them locally and copy them over to the server, this can be done by using the dedicated server tool on your windows box, the tool is located in

[Steam intall directory]\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers\Tools\DedicatedServer\SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe

1. Select the Default profile
2. Set up the world
3. Save the config
4. Start to generate the world.

The files will be stored in

C:\Users\{USERNAME}\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineersDedicated\Default

Edit the SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg and copy it with the Saves folder to the following directory on your Linux box

~/.wine/drive_c/users/$(whoami)/Application\ Data/SpaceEngineersDedicated

Step #3: Tweaks

You'll have to change the <LoadWorld> tag so it point to the correct directory.

If the Save folder is located in

~/.wine/drive_c/users/$(whoami)/Application\ Data/SpaceEngineersDedicated/Saves/Created 2015-03-30 2331

the <LoadWorld> tag must look like this, where {username} is the same as $(whoami)

<LoadWorld>C:\Users\{username}\Application Data\SpaceEngineersDedicated\Default\Saves\Created 2015-03-30 2331</LoadWorld> 

You still need to use windows paths.

Step #4: Run it

1. Go to the directory where you have the dedicated server files
2. wine SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe -console

Notes:

• There will be a lot of messages regarding xserver, ignore them
• Errors like fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L"System.Core" are okay, ignore them.
• Be sure to run 32bit, wine doesn't like the 64bit one.
• There is a small bug where after stopping the server you will no longer see what you're typing into the console.
• This guide is based on the guide I found over at Keen Software House Forums created by AdamAnt

I've been working out how to get this working on a server where i have ssh access but it does not have any GUI.

The short of it is, GUI access is just about absolutely necessary for an initial setup, but not for continued running. I tried some things to get the GUI to work over xvfb and vnc, but it didn't pan out (it's probably possible though, if the server actually has a gui it is easier, waypipe could potentially work in that case).

This is the setup process I used.

1. On a GUI capable machine, install the space engineers dedicated server through steam, then run

   winetricks -q dotnet48 vcrun2013 vcrun2017
   

2. Run the dedicated server through wine, configure it, start it, verify it is working, then exit.
3. Transfer the configuration and save data to the server, i used scp for this (if you have working ssh this should work too, make sure to use the same port as your ssh connection would with the -P argument). So something like

   scp -r ~/.wine/drive_c/users/$USER/AppData/Roaming/SpaceEngineersDedicated/ user@192.168.1.7:~/
   

   where the serverside username is user and the server ip is 192.168.1.7.
4. Install the dedicated server serverside.

   steamcmd +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows +force_install_dir /srv/space_engineers +login anonymous +app_update 298740 +exit
   

   in my case I elected to install it at /srv/space_engineers
5. Move the server config to the desired directory.

   mv ~/Downloads/SpaceEngineersDedicated /srv/space_engineers/config
   

6. Fix the world path in the cfg

   nano /srv/space_engineers/config/SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg 
   

   Find the <LoadWorld> settiing and replace the start of it with Z:\srv\space_engineers\config\, assuming you installed the server at the same location as I did:

   <LoadWorld>Z:\srv\space_engineers\config\Saves\WORLDNAME\Sandbox.sbc</LoadWorld>
   

7. Install the necessary dependencies for the wine prefix.

   xvfb-run winetricks -q dotnet48 vcrun2013 vcrun2017
   

   I use xvfb because these installers may try to open progress windows and act up when they can't.
8. Start the server.

   xvfb-run wine /srv/space_engineers/DedicatedServer64/SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe -console  -path 'Z:\srv\space_engineers\config'
   

For any reconfiguration you can just edit SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg.

A big benefit to doing it this way (using the -path variable to set a specific config dir for the server) is that your saves are no longer tied to your wine prefix, so if you need to mess with your wine prefix later there's no risk of losing your save on accident. And the location is also a lot more convenient than having it all buried deep in a wine prefix. So administration becomes a bit easier and less risky this way.