View source for Left 4 Dead 2 Install


[[Category:Linux]]

[[Category:Source_Based_Servers]]

[[File:Left4Dead2.png|thumb|350px]]

'''Copy the commands within the code boxes and paste/run them in Putty'''

First you will need to connect to your server using Putty (SSH) in order to do this install See - [[connecting_to_your_server|Connecting to your server]]

== Making a folder for the server ==

You will need to make a folder somewhere that the server files will be installed (If you have done this, skip this part)

The most common or best place to put most of your files on a server is in the /home folder

Change Directory to /home

<pre>cd /home</pre>

Now make a folder e.g. L4D2_Server Note to change the "L4D2_Server" to the servers name or folder name

<pre>mkdir L4D2_Server</pre>

Now go into that folder

<pre>cd L4D2_Server</pre>

Now you have a new / clean folder you can being to download & install the files for the server.


== Installing SteamCMD + SRCDS / L4D2 ==

First you will need to download SteamCMD (The new Server tool from Valve) in order to download Steam & then SRCDS (Source Dedicated Server) for L4D2 use

<pre>wget http://media.steampowered.com/client/steamcmd_linux.tar.gz</pre>

After downloading you will need to extract the contents of the compressed file

<pre>tar xvfz steamcmd_linux.tar.gz</pre>

Then you will need to run SteamCMD for the first time

<pre>./steamcmd.sh</pre>

Running this command will check for SteamCMD updates to the updater, when it is done it will allow you to input commands

At the point where you see "Steam>" This is where you can either login as your steam account or login as anonymous (Benefits for linking your server to a Steam account is that steam will add it to their trusted 3rd party servers list in some of their games, so it will appear on the server browser better)

Logging in anonymously 

<pre>login anonymous</pre>

Logging in as your account (Note it is best to create a separate account for this, or you will have to logout of Steam while you are using these commands)

<pre>login <username></pre>

It should then ask for your password & you may have to enter your Steam Guard Password once it emails you one (if you have Steam Guard enabled on your account)


== Downloading L4D2 ==

Once you have done the tasks above you can now install a Steam Game Server, To install L4D2 to the current folder you command

<pre>force_install_dir ./l4d2/</pre>

<pre>app_update 222860 validate</pre>

222860 is the app id for L4D2

This will check the current folder & download any / all missing files for a L4D2 Server (you can use this command to redownload files that you may have deleted

L4D2 Will now download (Should go very fast with our network speeds on our servers)

== Running Left 4 Dead 2 via Screen ==

When you go to run the game server you want it to run in the background even when you disconnect from Putty, you will find if you just leave it running & close Putty you will kill the server (kills any processes you left running)

The way you keep a process running while you disconnect, is by making a session (using screen) Note to change the "L4D2_Server" to the servers name or folder name

<pre>screen -S L4D2_Server</pre>

Now you will notice you are on a new session with a clean view of Putty

Now you can run your Left 4 Dead 2 Server Note to change the values in this line e.g. max players, port etc...

Max Players - up to 8, Port (Best to use unused ones e.g. 25XXX-27XXX

<pre>./srcds_run -console -game left4dead2 +map l4d_hospital01_apartment +maxplayers 8 -autoupdate -port 27000 +exec server.cfg</pre>

If all done right your server should start up fine & the last thing it should say is "VAC Secure" or something very simular, If not try downloading the files again, just incase it missed a few (highly unlikly)

Now you can Disconnect from the session

Using Keys "Ctrl + A + D" at the same time

=== Using Fork ===

You can use the Fork function to run multiple servers running from the same files (Saves having to start up / manage multiple servers if they are going to be the same)

See the example command above, this will create extra instances of the servers

<pre>./srcds_run -console -game left4dead2 +map c5m1_waterfront +maxplayers 8 -autoupdate -port 27300 +exec server.cfg -fork 5</pre>


== Reconnecting to the process / session ==

Once you have a session running you may want to recconnect to it as the server may crash, or you may want to turn it off or restart etc...

First you will need to find what sessions are running & their process id

<pre>screen -ls</pre>

[[File:puttyscreen.png|350px]]

As you see in my screenshot, i have 2 Screen Sessions running, if i want to connect to 2047Servers session i would use the numbers on the left

<pre>screen -r 7354</pre>

Note Change the ID numbers to what your ones are