Running OpenTTD as dedicated server on my NAS (ARM)

[Valentijn]

EDIT: I succeeded in running the dedicated server on my NAS. More info below original FP.

Hello,

Apart from the fact that I need to compile OpenTTD for my NAS, I first have another question.

Will it be posible to run it on my NAS as dedicated server? The NAS has only a basic Linux 2.6.6.

I think I will be able to get in all the dependencies, but I am not sure if the Dedicated server can run entirely ''headless''.

Any thoughts?

BTW it's a D-Link DNS-323 NAS.

EDIT: Mission accomplished:

I managed to setup a Debian chroot on my NAS (following: http://wiki.dns323.info/howto:chroot_debian - The Easy Way).

In the chroot I could compile openttd 0.7.5, with one minor patch that is now in trunk).

patch_arm_fix_screenshot_cpp_0.7.5.patch

(928 Bytes) Downloaded 237 times

Here's the Debian package, compiled against arm (not armel!):

openttd_0.7.5_arm.deb

(3.39 MiB) Downloaded 227 times

To install:

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dkpg -i openttd_0.7.5_arm.deb

For users on an armel architecture, you can just install OpenTTD with apt-get:

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apt-get install openttd

EDIT: After running a week on 256x256 succesfully, I now switched to 512x512 maps. Unfortunately the game now stutters every once in a while. On my NAS I see high cpu usage at those times. Guess my NAS isn't quick enough for bigger maps.

[Zuu]

Is having a detached screen session headless enough for you?

[Valentijn]

For me it is, I don't care. It's just that I don't know enough about Linux and OpenTTD to know whether it will run at all without a GUI.

[Zuu]

Please note that 'screen' is a specific program: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Screen

OpenTTD can run from a terminal, but if you login on a remote machine using ssh, you probably want to use screen and then deattach from the screen session, so that you can attach to it later. It should still be possible to run openttd with an '&' afterwards to make it stay alive after the ssh-connection has been broken. (IIRC you had to use also a ! in z-shell. Not sure if that also applies to bach which is the more common shell)

[Valentijn]

Thanks.

I did know Screen, but didn't know openttd was capable of running in a terminal only.

Next step is to compile the thing on the NAS, I think I'm still missing some libs. I'll give it a go.

[Zuu]

When you compile, you can specify that you want to compile a dedicated build. That will not require the SDL/Allegro/DirectX libraries and will only run in a terminal. You can run a normal build in dedicated mode, but since you are going to build from scratch, then you can just omit the GUI part at compile time.

[Valentijn]

Thanks, I only ever compiled it on windows so good to know.

Is it obvious how to omit the GUI part? Probably just some parameter to Make?

[planetmaker]

It's decided by configure:

./configure --enable-dedicated

call ./configure --help to see all available options

After calling ./configure you call make.

[Valentijn]

ah, right. I remember! First configure.

[Valentijn]

Configure is running ok, except for missing zlib library (which I do have installed).

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checking zlib... not found
WARNING: zlib was not detected or disabled
WARNING: OpenTTD doesn't require zlib, but it does mean many features (like
WARNING: loading most savegames/scenarios, joining most servers, loading
WARNING: heightmaps, using PNG or using fonts, ...) will be disabled.
configure: error: no zlib detected
 If you want to compile without zlib use --without-zlib as parameter

If I run configure without zlib, it runs ok.

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./configure --enable-dedicated --without-zlib

But compilation fails:

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[SRC] Compiling saveload/afterload.cpp
/mnt/usb/ffp/openttd/src/saveload/afterload.cpp: In function 'bool AfterLoadGame()':
/mnt/usb/ffp/openttd/src/saveload/afterload.cpp:1811: internal compiler error: Segmentation fault
Please submit a full bug report,
with preprocessed source if appropriate.
See <URL:http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html> for instructions.
make[1]: *** [saveload/afterload.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/mnt/usb/ffp/openttd/objs/release'
make: *** [all] Error 2

Since it fails on aferload, might it still have something to do with the zlib missing?

line 1811 from afterload.cpp is just a simple statement:

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                if (_settings_game.economy.town_layout == 0) { // was TL_NO_ROA
 

It could also be an out of memory problem. My NAS has 64MB of memoy, don't know if that's enough to compile openttd.

[Valentijn]

Second run of make fails with similar error, but on different line number:

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[SRC] Compiling saveload/afterload.cpp
/mnt/usb/ffp/openttd/src/saveload/afterload.cpp: In function 'bool AfterLoadGam  ()':
/mnt/usb/ffp/openttd/src/saveload/afterload.cpp:385: internal compiler error: I  legal instruction
Please submit a full bug report,
with preprocessed source if appropriate.
See <URL:http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html> for instructions.
make[1]: *** [saveload/afterload.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/mnt/usb/ffp/openttd/objs/release'
make: *** [all] Error 2

Line:

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bool AfterLoadGame()

Nothing wrong with the code I think.

One thing I noticed is that configure completes, but along the way there are some errors:

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checking host c++... g++
checking host strip... strip
makedepend: No such file or directory
checking makedepend... not found
detecting cpu-type... 32 bits

makedepend command is unkown. No idea where to find it.

[Valentijn]

After multiple tries it keeps failing consistently on the problem mentioned in the first post:

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[SRC] Compiling saveload/afterload.cpp
/mnt/usb/ffp/openttd/src/saveload/afterload.cpp: In function 'bool AfterLoadGame()':
/mnt/usb/ffp/openttd/src/saveload/afterload.cpp:1811: internal compiler error: Illegal instruction
Please submit a full bug report,
with preprocessed source if appropriate.
See <URL:http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html> for instructions.
make[1]: *** [saveload/afterload.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/mnt/usb/ffp/openttd/objs/release'
make: *** [all] Error 2

[Rubidium]

makedepend command is unkown. No idea where to find it.

You don't need; it's nothing to worry about. The compiler crashing is something to worry about. Sounds like a buggy/broken compiler to me, although illegal instructions might show that the binary is 'just' corrupted. How did you make/acquire the compiler?

[Valentijn]

You don't need; it's nothing to worry about. The compiler crashing is something to worry about. Sounds like a buggy/broken compiler to me, although illegal instructions might show that the binary is 'just' corrupted. How did you make/acquire the compiler?

Thanks for the answer.

The compiler is just the gcc compiler from the well known fun_plug package. Lots of people are using is, so it should be ok.

Community site: http://forum.dsmg600.info/viewforum.php?id=3

Site of creator of fun_plug: http://www.inreto.de/dns323/fun-plug/0.5/

Some compile instructions: http://nas-tweaks.net/CH3SNAS:Tutorials ... g_software

In the past I have been able to compile nzbget with (an earlier version) of this gcc package.

[Rubidium]

Sadly enough the fact that the compiler compiles program X just fine doesn't mean program Y compiles just fine too. Maybe it's because of some of the tricks we do; it's still valid C++, just not very common and thus more prone to unresolved compiler bugs.

For example GCC's LTO feature was added to trunk and after that it took a few months before it kind-of works for OpenTTD and still it's not 100% working for OpenTTD.

I suggest upgrading the compiler or if that's not possible downgrading to see whether it's fixed/a new bug.

[Valentijn]

I understand, I am already (trying) to get to the latest gcc compiler.

I am compiling from tag 0.7.5, just t o let you know.

[Valentijn]

The compiler (GCC) hase been compiled with the following options supplied to configure:

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--enable-languages=c,c++ --enable-__cxa_atexit
--with-local-prefix=$CPREFIX
--disable-multilib
--disable-libssp --disable-libgomp --disable-libmudflap
--disable-tls
--with-float=soft
--disable-bootstrap

Does anyone know if these options will result in the correct compiler.

BTW These are the options used to compile GCC, not to compile openttd.

[Valentijn]

ok, I managed to install a Debian chroot on my NAS and try to compile it in there. It should have better support for libraries and stable compilers, etc.

Result is that it now gets a bit further, but still fails. This time on a more genuine error (failed assertion):

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[SRC] Compiling screenshot.cpp
/mnt/HD_a2/openttd/src/screenshot.cpp:76: error: size of array '__ct_assert__' is negative
make[1]: *** [screenshot.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/mnt/HD_a2/openttd/objs/release'
make: *** [all] Error 2
NAS:/mnt/HD_a2/openttd# joe src/screenshot.cpp

Can I work around this?

[Valentijn]

The assertion:

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/** Pixel data in 24bpp BMP */
struct RgbTriplet {
        byte b, g, r;
};
assert_compile(sizeof(RgbTriplet) == 3);

Very strange it fails ?!

[peter1138]

No, ARM packs the struct to 32 bit words, so it will be 4 bytes. This is a genuine OpenTTD bug, and r18673 fixes this assumption.