Hosting rfactor2 using Wine on Linux VMs / VMware ESXi 6.5

Discussion in 'Technical & Support' started by hoover, Oct 12, 2018.

  1. hoover

    hoover Registered

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    Hi folks,

    I've finally managed to solve (or work around) some long standing crashing / lockup issues when hosting rf2 dedicated servers in a Linux VM running on a VMware 6.5 ESXi host.

    I looks like VMware's network driver (vmxnet3) is quite buggy, and I've reported the problem on the wine forum and also provided a link to the workaround here:

    https://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31300&p=118582#p118582

    The initial bug report can be found here:

    https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1654319

    This also affects Debian9 systems apparently. Updating your ESXi host to 6.5U1 will supposedly also fix the issue.

    Meanwhile I've reverted back to winehq-stable (wine 3.0.3 I think) and everything appears to work fine.

    I hope this note will be useful to those folks running their dedicated servers on the Linux platform.

    All the best, Uwe
     
  2. sf4JC

    sf4JC Registered

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    Thanks for the info, hoover! I'm going to give this a try hopefully some time over the weekend. I've been trying for the past week to run a server on a dual boot ubuntu studio/Windows 10 laptop (5 1/2 yrs old w/ethernet cable), which I started to try and run it on the ubuntu studio side and wound up disabling it through trial and error. Anyway, I can successfully run the server on the Windows 10 partition, except for it not being visible for anyone else (Maybe my firewall settings, not sure at the moment). But WOW, when I can connect to the server on my main Windows 10 PC, it's like a night and day difference from when I ran the server and client on the same machine.

    Scott
     
  3. hoover

    hoover Registered

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    No worries Scott, please feel free to report your findings / experiences here. Looking forward to hearing from you!

    Uwe
     
  4. sf4JC

    sf4JC Registered

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    Hello Uwe, I have had no luck at installing Steam on another all Ubuntu Studio machine I have, but I haven't searched the internet for the answers about that either just yet (a fight for another day/week/month/year). I thought I would try and get a server up and running on one of the other Windows 10 machines around the house so that I have something to grade my progress in, but still am unable to get it visible to me and also on the "outside" of the house. I can get in the usually way with the modified shortcut routine on the main computer still though. Somehow I am missing a key element (Maybe firewall related again, but don't really think so, as I have been able to get through the ports okay, I think :confused: ). I have yet to come across a "central thread", ANYWHERE :( , that puts me on the right track totally, it's just bits and pieces here and there. Thank the Lord I have had a lot of patience through all of this, I have almost come to an end that I wish not to give up on. I really do enjoy rF2 when I get to race it. Oh well, tomorrow's a new day.

    Scott
     
  5. sf4JC

    sf4JC Registered

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    Hello again Uwe! I was finally able to run servers on 3 out of 4 Windows 10 machines over the last week or so, but still wondering why I cannot run a server on one of the desktop Windows 10 machines. Anyway, I have found some forum threads that you have either started or replied on, and have once again started my "quest" to get an rF2 server working on one of my Ubuntu Studio machines without the help of Wine I think. Tonight I was finally able to get Steam installed on my wireless Ubuntu Studio desktop, which before tonight, it was not installing on this machine. So, I have a question for you. Can an rF2 server work on a linux/Ubuntu machine and NOT use Wine? My thought is that it would work with better performance possibly without the use of Wine. I need to do more research this week on how to install an rF2 server on a linux/Ubuntu system, or maybe I should give the Wine solution a try first. Do you know if I can possibly just copy and paste a server from one of the Windows 10 systems into the Wine -->C: "drive"? I'm at a loss at the moment, wondering how to use the Windows installation guide in Wine. Thanks for any help on this.

    Scott
     
  6. hoover

    hoover Registered

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    Hello Scott, basically you can do it all from the command line once you have the linux steamcmd client installed, there's no need to go full GUI for the server component only.

    To install the dedicated server use the following command:

    steamcmd.sh +login anonymous +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows +force_install_dir ~/.wine/drive_c/rf2_dedi +app_update 400300 +quit

    This should get you the rf2 dedi server with no mods.

    To download mods, check their id in the workshop and then do this:

    steamcmd.sh +login <your steam userid> <your steam password> +workshop_download_item 365960 1238702776 +quit

    You can then copy over the rfcmp to your rf2_dedi/Packages directory and install it using wine and modmgr (at this point you'll need a gui, for my remote servers I use x2go and openbox):

    cd .wine/drive_c/rf2_dedi
    wine Bin32/ModMgr.exe

    Once you have installed a few mods (cars & tracks), use the MAS2.exe tool to create your vmod:

    wine Support/Tools/MAS2.exe

    Now you can start the dedicated server using WINE like so:
    wine Bin64/rFactor2\ Dedicated.exe

    HTH & sorry for the late reply!

    Uwe

    PS: Currently it's not possible to host rf2 dedi servers on Linux though, most of the time it's a laggy rubber band fest, but sometimes it works and then it's just great. I'm in contact with S397 about the issue as hosting used to work fine until a couple of patches ago that broke wine 1.8 compatibility. I have not been able to find a working reliable combination so far, and I've spent hours and hours on this project. Hosting on a LAN generally works fine though, only when you host via the internet things go south most of the time though the server itself is rock stable on WINE.
     
  7. hoover

    hoover Registered

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    PS: No, wine is required to run rf2 on Linux for now until S397 provides a native Linux version. The Steam proton toolkit also uses WINE under the hood, but don't worry about performance, for me performance in WINE on Linux is usually at least as good or better than what I'm seeing on win7.
     
  8. sf4JC

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    Thanks for the reply Uwe. I've been out of town for a while until after Christmas sometime, so I have not been able to follow your instructions as of yet, but hope to be able to get right on that as soon as I can. Thanks Again for your reply!

    Scott
     

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