Running a dedicated server on Linux using Wine

Even though Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop is currently only available for Windows, the dedicated server can be run on Linux using Wine.

Wine and SteamCMD

Install Wine using your distribution's package manager. There are many guides on the internet for how to install Wine, so I won't go into more detail here.

Download the Linux version of SteamCMD. The archive contains several files. Extract it into a folder somewhere and open a shell in that folder.

Start up SteamCMD for the first time:

./steamcmd.sh

This will update SteamCMD to the latest version, just like what happens when you start Steam for the first time. When it finishes, it will show a prompt: Steam>

Type login anonymous to log into the anonymous dedicated server account.

When you're done with SteamCMD, type quit. If your console isn't showing what you type after you quit, type stty sane.

Installing and running the dedicated server

First, tell SteamCMD that you want the Windows version of Reactive Drop (the only version, currently):

@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows

...and where you want the server to be downloaded to:

force_install_dir ./rd_server

To download or update Reactive Drop, run the following command inside SteamCMD:

app_update 582400

Run this command if you want to verify game cache:

app_update 582400 -validate

You can also install a beta version of the dedicated server:

app_update 582400 -beta beta

I use these commands in a shell script to start my server:

cd /path/to/rd_server
wine start srcds.exe -game reactivedrop -console -port 27015 +exec server +map lobby

srcds requires a graphical environment, so if you're running this headlessly, use something like xvfb to provide a framebuffer.

If your computer has multiple network cards, you need to specify -ip [server's LAN IP address] when you start the server. Mine is 192.168.1.79, but this will almost definitely be different on your computer.

+exec server runs server.cfg when the server starts up. Here's a simple server.cfg:

hostname "My Cool Reactive Drop Server"

asw_default_campaign jacob

This sets the name of the server to My Cool Reactive Drop Server and sets the default campaign when the server is empty to Jacob's Rest.

If you have a Steam group with players who want to play on your server, you can add sv_steamgroup with the number from the group's admin page.

Making workshop content available

You can make public workshop addons available on your server by creating a workshop.cfg file. Here's mine at the time of writing this tutorial:

rd_enable_workshop_item 848260335
rd_enable_workshop_item 848331447
rd_enable_workshop_item 848935191
rd_enable_workshop_item 856807495
rd_enable_workshop_item 856979922
rd_enable_workshop_item 861497042

This config will be executed once when the server is ready to connect to the workshop. You can put any number of rd_enable_workshop_item commands here, and each one can have any number of Steam Workshop file IDs. You can get the file ID from the URL of the workshop page.

If your server is empty when it finishes downloading a workshop addon, it will reload the first map of the default campaign, so it is possible to set a workshop campaign as the default campaign.

[NEMEZIDA-NERTUBIRU [lauriss x23]]

impressive

[spjoe]

Thanks for the tutorial.

If you have already steamCMD installed for linux, there is no need to install windows steamCMD.
You can force steamCMD to download the windows version by adding "+@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows" as command line option for steamCMD.

Example:
[code]/usr/bin/steamcmd +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows +login anonymous +force_install_dir ./alienswarm_reactivedrop +app_update 563560 +quit[/code]

[spjoe]

Thanks for the tutorial.

If you have already steamCMD installed for linux, there is no need to install windows steamCMD.
You can force steamCMD to download the windows version by adding "+@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows" as command line option for steamCMD.

Example:
[code]/usr/bin/steamcmd +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows +login anonymous +force_install_dir ./alienswarm_reactivedrop +app_update 563560 +quit[code]

[Ross]

The latest Windows version. Note that the Admin Menu doesn't work on this game, only the console commands.

[闲月疏云]

Which version of SourceMod can I use on the "Linux" server?

[Ross]

Use xpra to set different X server instances and run multiple srcds consoles.

[Snack-tacular]

Is there any way to run multiple servers using wine? Every time I tried running a second one only the first one I started was running, tried running on different users too, no effect.

[VYRNACH GAMING]

for saving others the headache that I just got trying to get this work. You must login to an account and not used anonymous otherwise you won't get the actual files

[Ross]

Use the -conosle parameter and it'll be 8 players by default.

[Johnson]

anyone know how to set 8 player dedicated server(windows) ?