TL;DR: I was able to get Minetest 5.4.1 running with MineClone2 0.76.0. However, I could NOT get Minetest 5.6.0 running with Mineclone2 0.82.0
Context: I want to set up a Minetest server in the cloud for me and my friends to play. I want to use cloud hosting rather than self-hosting on a local device, because my internet connection is spotty, and I want the server to have reliable uptime.
Cloud: I used Oracle's free cloud service, because it's free, and gives you 4 powerful ARM Ampere CPUs, and 24 GB of RAM https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/. I'm running Ubuntu Linux on this Virtual Private Server (VPS).
Problems: There are two problems with this setup:
1. Minetest doesn't provide a self-contained Minetest zip folder on Linux, unlike Windows. So in order to run a Minetest server, I would have to get an outdated version from the repositories, or compile Minetest myself.
2. I'm starting to suspect that the ARM architecture is causing my problems. I've been able to run a Minetest server on my AMD-based laptop without issues.
Failures and Successes:
After setting up Ubuntu on my Oracle Cloud server, I've tried all of the following to get my Minetest server running:Failure 1: I tried compiling Minetest 5.6.0 on my Oracle Cloud VPS, and running it with Mineclone2 0.82.0.
I chose these versions because they were listed on this Mineclone2 release thread as compatible: viewtopic.php?t=16407
Result: My friends and I can connect and play Mineclone2, but the server consistently crashes during the 1st night. We checked the debug.txt logs in the Minetest folder, but didn't find anything useful.
Here's an example of the segmentation fault crash that happened. All the crashes mentioned below showed a similar message:
Spoiler
Code: Select all
2023-01-23 10:25:59: ACTION[Server]: [mcl_mobs] Mob mobs_mc:spider despawns at (-5.7,-21.5,39.8) lifetimer ran out
2023-01-23 10:26:01: ACTION[Server]: [mcl_mobs] Mob mobs_mc:skeleton spawns on mcl_core:granite at (-7.0,-5.0,14.0)
2023-01-23 10:26:01: WARNING[Server]: [mcl_mobs] mob mobs_mc:enderman refused to spawn at (-7,-5,14)
2023-01-23 10:26:03: ACTION[Server]: [mcl_mobs] Mob mobs_mc:enderman despawns at (-7.8,-23.1,44.0) lifetimer ran out
2023-01-23 10:26:18: ACTION[Server]: [mcl_mobs] Mob mobs_mc:creeper despawns at (-21.9,1.7,-41.4) lifetimer ran out
2023-01-23 10:26:23: ACTION[Server]: [mcl_mobs] Mob mobs_mc:zombie despawns at (44.2,1.5,38.5) lifetimer ran out
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
Failure 2: I tried compiling Minetest 5.5.1 on my Oracle Cloud VPS, and running it with Mineclone2 0.80.1.
I chose these versions because they were listed on this Mineclone2 release thread as compatible: viewtopic.php?t=16407
Result: Mineclone2 was stable when I played as the only person on the server. But when my friends joined the server, it crashed after about 23 minutes. It ran longer without crashing than with Minetest 5.6.0 and Mineclone2 0.82.0.
Failure 3: I tried compiling Minetest 5.4.1 on my Oracle Cloud VPS.
Result: I didn't even get to run the server because it had build errors.
Failure 4: I tried compiling Minetest 5.6.0 on my Oracle Cloud VPS, and tried to run it with Mineclone2 0.80.1.
Result: The server kept immediately crashing.
Success 1: I tried installing Minetest 5.4.1 via Ubuntu's repositories
Code: Select all
sudo apt install minetest-server
Result: My friends and I were able to play without crashing for ~ 7 hours straight.
Success 2: I tried compiling Minetest 5.6.0 on my own laptop, and running it with Mineclone2 0.82.0. I did this as a direct comparison to the Failure 1 (on my Oracle Cloud server).
Result: My friends and I were able to play without crashing for ~ 4 hours straight. This shows that I was following the compiling directions correctly, but it still wasn't working on my Oracle Cloud server for some reason.
Observations:
- When the server does crash, it either crashes immediately, or during the first night. I'm not sure if the crashing has something to do with monsters spawning, but that's a consistent pattern. I posted this here because the server versions that crashed when running with Mineclone2 seemed to work fine with Minetest game.- I was able to get Minetest 5.6.0 and Mineclone2 0.82.0 running without crashes on my personal laptop. These same versions consistently crashed on my Oracle Cloud server.
Please help:
I know my setup is pretty niche (running on an ARM-based cloud server), but I was so excited to get my friends off Minecraft and onto the FOSS Minetest, and I want to be able to play with the latest version and feature updates to Minetest and Mineclone2.I'd really appreciate your help! :)