Building MTASA Server on GNU Linux

Preparing your system

In order to build the Multi Theft Auto dedicated server, you will have to set up your system with the correct libraries and tools. How these are installed depends on your distribution.

Our network module (net.dll or net.so) is distributed as a precompiled binary library. The file for GNU/Linux can be found inside the lastest Linux nightly from here. Use the net.so from 1.2 if you are compiling from the trunk, or the net.so from 1.1.x if you are compiling the 1.1.x branch. Be sure the read the top of MTA10_Server/version.h as it contains directions on how to compile the different build types.

Debian Linux

Includes derivative distributions such as Ubuntu.

You will need the necessary build tools, headers and libraries, which are distributed through the following Debian packages (e.g. Debian Lenny):

• build-essential: contains the necessary tools, headers and libraries to build applications
• automake: contains the automake tools
• libtool: contains the libtool software required to build libraries
• libcurl3-dev: contains the cURL library (version 3 without SSL support)
• libpcre3-dev: contains the PCRE library (version 3)
• libsqlite3-dev: contains the SQLite library (version 3)
• libreadline5-dev: contains the readline library (version 5)
• subversion: contains the SVN client used to check out our code repository
• libncurses5-dev: contains software for controlling writing to the console screen
• libncursesw5-dev: contains support for wide characters
• libsparsehash-dev: contains support for Google's hash-map (So you don't have to compile sparehash!)
• libmysqlclient-dev: contains the MySQL library

To install these packages through apt, use the apt-get install <package list> command as in the following example (executed as root):

apt-get install build-essential automake libtool libcurl4-openssl-dev libpcre3-dev libsqlite3-dev libreadline5-dev subversion libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev libsparsehash-dev libmysqlclient-dev

Gentoo Linux

You will need the necessary build tools, headers and libraries. Because Gentoo’s portage system is designed to compile any packages on your own system, the necessary build tools will have already been installed. This only leaves you to install the necessary libraries:

• sqlite: contains the SQLite library
• subversion: contains the SVN client used to check out our code repository
• curl: contains the cURL library; to compile with SSL support, apply the net-misc/curl ssl USE flag

To compile and install these packages through emerge, use the emerge -v <package list> command. The -v option shows additional * * information and can be omitted. (If you want to use any USE flags, prepend emerge with USE="use flags here". You can also use the -pv option to verify that you’re using the correct flags.) Refer to the Gentoo Handbook or manual for more information on emerge.

Example:

emerge -v subversion sqlite
USE=“net-misc/curl ssl” emerge -v curl

Fedora

You will need these packages to be able to successfully compile a MTA server on Fedora:

• glibc-devel:
• curl-devel: contains the cURL library
• pcre-devel: contains the PCRE library
• sqlite3-devel: contains the SQLite library
• readline-devel: contains the readline library
• lua-devel: contains the Lua libraries
• subversion: contains the SVN client to check out the source code

To install these packages through yum, use the yum install <package list> command as in the following example (executed as root):

yum install glibc-devel curl-devel pcre-devel sqlite3-devel readline-devel lua-devel subversion

A warning for x64

The MTA:SA server currently cannot be properly compiled in 64-bit mode. Instead, you should compile it in 32-bit mode and run it using 32-bit compatibility mode (use the -m32 flag).

General instructions for 1.3

Downloading the source.

First you need to download the source.

svn checkout http://mtasa-blue.googlecode.com/svn/branches/1.6.0/ mtasa-blue
cd mtasa-blue

Then compile it thus:

autoreconf -fiv
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/lib32/pkgconfig
./configure LDFLAGS="-m32" CPPFLAGS="-m32" CFLAGS="-m32" CXXFLAGS="-m32" $@
make
make -C MTA10_Server install
make -C Shared/XML install

Get the net.so like this:

wget http://nightly.mtasa.com/?multitheftauto_linux-1.6.0-rc-latest -O multitheftauto_linux-1.6.0-latest.tar.gz
tar -xzf multitheftauto_linux-1.6.0-latest.tar.gz --transform 's:[^/]*:latest_nightly:'
mv latest_nightly/net.so .
rm -rf latest_nightly multitheftauto_linux-1.6.0-latest.tar.gz

Copy config files

cp MTA10_Server/mods/deathmatch/acl.xml MTA10_Server/output/mods/deathmatch/acl.xml
cp MTA10_Server/mods/deathmatch/mtaserver.conf MTA10_Server/output/mods/deathmatch/mtaserver.conf

Get resources

cd MTA10_Server/output
svn export http://mtasa-resources.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ mods/deathmatch/resources

And the server should be ready in MTA10_Server/output

Troubleshooting

Any errors during the compilation of json-c can be solved by calling autoreconf -fi from the json-c directory.

If you’re getting any unexpected errors while compiling, please check our Bug tracker or our IRC channel

Server crashes

If your Linux server crashes, please obtain a backtrace and post a report on our Bug tracker

Do you have a core dump file in the the MTA server directory?

It's usually called 'core', and usually over 100MB, and looks something like this:

If you have a core dump file in the the MTA server directory:

• Install gdb. To install gdb on Debian, use this command:

apt-get install gdb

• And from the MTA install directory do this command

gdb mta-server -c core

• When gdb launches, do this command to get a backtrace:

bt

• Save the output
• (To exit gdb, use the quit command)

If you do not have a core dump file in the the MTA server directory:

• Install gdb. To install gdb on Debian, use this command:

apt-get install gdb

• And from the MTA server directory start the mta-server like this:

gdb mta-server --eval-command run

• Now wait for a crash. (Ignore weird screen output in the meantime)
• When a crash occurs, do this command to get a backtrace:

bt

• Save the output
• (To exit gdb, use the quit command)