Halo Demo / Full Dedicated Server for Unix / Linux

[Sparky]

There is a Halo CE Dedicated Server application which runs on the command-line on Windows XP. There may also be a version for Halo Full PC, but I'm not sure about that.

nil and I were discussing on Mumble the possibility of making a synthetic hosting script or using a ported version for linux/unix. Having spoken with Richard Wolfson about the game, I learned that he maintains the game on the PC side of things. I asked him about porting the dedicated server tool to unix/linux:

Mr. Wolfson,

We've had some great success getting our multiplayer lobby to run from
another server...

Now I wonder if it would be possible to run a Halo dedicated server on
a command-line unix server (which can't run screen or any other display
interface). Does Halo PC's Dedicated Server tool use a user interface or
command line, and would it be possible to port that application to linux
through Wine or something like that?

Thank you in advance.

It's a command-line app so that's in your favor, but I don't know anything about porting apps to Linux or how Wine works.

I've attached the output of Microsoft's "depends" tool that shows what DLLs a program tried to load; there's nothing exotic here like directx (we made sure of that so it could run on servers without graphics hardware)

EDIT: Found it! But this comment says it requires screen, which is not an option for me: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.p ... &iId=12014

[nil]

...
EDIT: Found it! But this comment says it requires screen, which is not an option for me: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.p ... &iId=12014

Why does it matter how you run it? All you need to do is be able to launch the process. It doesn't involve any user interaction as far as I know.

[Sparky]

I'm trying to install wine (32bit) on my 10.6 system so I can try to port this to linux and upload it to the HDM server to run. I'm totally unfamiliar with the dedicated server. I'll have to give it a go on windows xp.
I might actually use wine64 instead. I don't think I have to install wine on the HDM server, do I? Just needs to convert the app to linux.

EDIT: I'm having problems with this, can someone else please port this application to linux using wine? Here's a download to the version I'm using:
http://www.halodemomods.com/wiki/File:H ... r_1.07.zip

nil, you can interact with it but all the configuration would be done in the init.txt file located in the same directory as the executable.

[Mike-N-Go]

Greetings all!

You might know me as "Mike" in the Halo Demo, but my developer handle is "Mike-N-Go"!

I have been looking into acquiring a dedicated server compatible with the Halo Combat Evolved Mac OS X (and more specifically, the Halo Demo), yet no dice.

In my search, I have not found evidence that the software for a Mac version of the Halo dedicated server exists: So I have inferred that there is not a Mac version of the server.. after several weeks worth of on-and-off searching.

Here is a list of Halo files:
http://www.patches-scrolls.de/halo.php

The version you linked was "File:Halo PC Dedicated Server 1.07.zip" and I do not believe this is the latest version. Unless you were using 1.07 for an unstated reason, try it with the latest! (Click to http://www.patches-scrolls.de/halo.php for the list.)

Do, please, let me know how your experiment goes! I would like to help where it is needed (with acquiring server nodes, fussing with Wine, researching stuff, testing mods, writing up spec sheets, contributing to the site, etc.), so please let me know what your needs are.

Respectfully,
Mike-N-Go

MikeNGoSupport+halo(at)gmail(dot)com

[nil]

Greetings all!

You might know me as "Mike" in the Halo Demo, but my developer handle is "Mike-N-Go"!

I have been looking into acquiring a dedicated server compatible with the Halo Combat Evolved Mac OS X (and more specifically, the Halo Demo), yet no dice.

In my search, I have not found evidence that the software for a Mac version of the Halo dedicated server exists: So I have inferred that there is not a Mac version of the server.. after several weeks worth of on-and-off searching.

Here is a list of Halo files:
http://www.patches-scrolls.de/halo.php

The version you linked was "File:Halo PC Dedicated Server 1.07.zip" and I do not believe this is the latest version. Unless you were using 1.07 for an unstated reason, try it with the latest! (Click to http://www.patches-scrolls.de/halo.php for the list.)

Do, please, let me know how your experiment goes! I would like to help where it is needed (with acquiring server nodes, fussing with Wine, researching stuff, testing mods, writing up spec sheets, contributing to the site, etc.), so please let me know what your needs are.

Respectfully,
Mike-N-Go

MikeNGoSupport+halo(at)gmail(dot)com

Right, there's no linux or os x version.

1.09 should be the latest version of the dedicated server and it's not on that website you listed either.

I've found this tutorial. I may try it when I get the chance on ubuntu linux.

[nil]

OK, running it on linux is actually really easy. I was using Ubuntu.

First grab the 1.09 halo dedicated version here: http://www.halodemomods.com/wiki/File:Halo_Server.zip

Place a copy of your Halo full bloodgulch.map in the Maps folder.

Install WINE on linux. Ubuntu's software manager told me latest stable version was 1.2, so that's what I used. 1.4 seems to be the actual latest stable release though (WINE's even number releases are 'stable' while their odd number releases are 'developmental'), but 1.2 works fine. (If you're not on Ubuntu or can't use its software manager, you can probably use sudo apt-get or rpm or some kind of package manager)

Run wineconsole just to make it update whatever it needs to and see if it runs without errors.

Then cd into the Halo Server directory, and run the halodedi executable by doing:

wineconsole --backend=user cmd.exe /c haloded.exe

This will create a new window so you can interact with the program. If you don't want this interaction (it's not necessary) and don't want it to require using the screen, you can have it use the curses library instead:

wineconsole --backend=curses cmd.exe /c haloded.exe

If you manage to set up a server that can really be dedicated and want it to appear on HaloMD, send me a PM.

[EDIT]: Confirmed that porting it to OS X is *much* more difficult (it shouldn't be theoretically, but that's how it is)... I'm not really that interested to care because real servers will either run on Windows or Linux and I'll need to add dedicated servers manually to the lobby anyway.

[Mike-N-Go]

OK, running [Halo CE dedicated server (with Mac OS X compatibility)] on linux is actually really easy. I was using Ubuntu.

[...]

I am going to play around with putting a *nix guest operating system on a virtual machine (VM), and see if I can figure out how to run the Halo dedicated server on my host operating system, Mac OS X 10.6.8. Have any of you tried Oracle's VirtualBox? I have not used it before, so it will take a while to read up. And once one of us gets a *nix Halo server working, we can export the state of the VM, and share and share alike!

..Provided WINE can run in a VM? (Google results just point me at "WINE vs VM" not WINE INSIDE VM.) Can any of you speak to this?

Nil, what makes it so hard to port it to Mac OS X?

I am currently on spring break from college, so I will see what I can get done before Monday, when school restarts.

And why does no one ever seam to be on MGM's Mumble?

And what version of Halo Demo for Mac OS X can log onto a Halo PC dedicated server? Can the stock Power PC Halo Combat Evolved OS X do it? The stock universal binary OS X? Or only the HaloMD we have on MGM?

~Mike-N-Go

[nil]

OK, running [Halo CE dedicated server (with Mac OS X compatibility)] on linux is actually really easy. I was using Ubuntu.

[...]

To clarify, I was running Halo PC Full dedicated server version 1.09, not the Custom Edition.

I am going to play around with putting a *nix guest operating system on a virtual machine (VM), and see if I can figure out how to run the Halo dedicated server on my host operating system, Mac OS X 10.6.8. Have any of you tried Oracle's VirtualBox? I have not used it before, so it will take a while to read up. And once one of us gets a *nix Halo server working, we can export the state of the VM, and share and share alike!

I am actually using VirtualBox for testing this on Ubuntu. Never thought about exporting the state, but it seems kind of meh to me \=.

..Provided WINE can run in a VM? (Google results just point me at "WINE vs VM" not WINE INSIDE VM.) Can any of you speak to this?

Yes, it can.

Nil, what makes it so hard to port it to Mac OS X?

WINE isn't as supported on os x. The compiler that ships with most recent version of Lion doesn't compile WINE well and wineconsole often fails to run properly. One source told me that version 1.2.3 works fine though, but not really in my experience. I've tried installing homebrew's version of WINE, and it was able to load wineconsole, but it ended up spitting out a Halo error on launch.

A much easier route is trying to use Wineskin. Engine version 1.5.x will result in "memory can't be allocated to Halo" or some sort error, engine version 1.1.5 has a different Halo-specific error. You can try testing out a bunch of different wineskin engines and see which one actually works out, if any. Can't think of much else other than I haven't tried alternatives to Wineskin. Basically, I couldn't get WINE to load the halodedi executable properly, and it's a stupid pain.

And what version of Halo Demo for Mac OS X can log onto a Halo PC dedicated server? Can the stock Power PC Halo Combat Evolved OS X do it? The stock universal binary OS X? Or only the HaloMD we have on MGM?

Halo Demo can't log into a Halo PC dedicated server. HaloMD is a hacked-full version version basically. The stock PPC Halo cannot do it because the network version is not up to date. The latest universal binary version can do it, and so can HaloMD provided the server is configured to our likings.

[Guest]

Nil, what makes it so hard to port [the dedicated server] to Mac OS X?

WINE isn't as supported on os x. The compiler that ships with most recent version of Lion doesn't compile WINE well and wineconsole often fails to run properly. One source told me that version 1.2.3 works fine though, but not really in my experience. I've tried installing homebrew's version of WINE, and it was able to load wineconsole, but it ended up spitting out a Halo error on launch.

A much easier route is trying to use Wineskin. Engine version 1.5.x will result in "memory can't be allocated to Halo" or some sort error, engine version 1.1.5 has a different Halo-specific error. You can try testing out a bunch of different wineskin engines and see which one actually works out, if any. Can't think of much else other than I haven't tried alternatives to Wineskin. Basically, I couldn't get WINE to load the halodedi executable properly, and it's a stupid pain.

10.6.8 is my current OS X version, would these pains be present in there entirety, for what is described above?

[nil]

Nil, what makes it so hard to port [the dedicated server] to Mac OS X?

WINE isn't as supported on os x. The compiler that ships with most recent version of Lion doesn't compile WINE well and wineconsole often fails to run properly. One source told me that version 1.2.3 works fine though, but not really in my experience. I've tried installing homebrew's version of WINE, and it was able to load wineconsole, but it ended up spitting out a Halo error on launch.

A much easier route is trying to use Wineskin. Engine version 1.5.x will result in "memory can't be allocated to Halo" or some sort error, engine version 1.1.5 has a different Halo-specific error. You can try testing out a bunch of different wineskin engines and see which one actually works out, if any. Can't think of much else other than I haven't tried alternatives to Wineskin. Basically, I couldn't get WINE to load the halodedi executable properly, and it's a stupid pain.

10.6.8 is my current OS X version, would these pains be present in there entirety, for what is described above?

For compiling WINE, probably not. But you may still run into Windows or Halo-specific issues running the halodedi executable.

[Mike-N-Go]

Nil,

When are you going to schedule a stress testing with HaloMD to your new dedicated server?

[nil]

Nil,

When are you going to schedule a stress testing with HaloMD to your new dedicated server?

I can't. I don't have a place where I can leave a server up 24/7. I'm sure it works fine though..