dedicated-server

[proven niche]

You just need to add " -public " to the launch Bat. No specific placement just at the end is fine.

[west matrix]

You da man, thanks!

[final current]

You're welcome to post the run command you're using for your container runner or a screenshot of a configuration form for it in whatever TrueNAS UI is used.

I assume you've set BACKUPS_DIRECTORY or are at least mounting a volume to the default /config/backups/.

[final current]

Also take a look at your container logs, @glossy slate. lloesche's container uses one of the more system-oriented cron daemons, which results in pam_loginuid errors when you try to lock it down at all.

[plain trellis]

I use same image, but with Portainer, and have no issues.

[glad glacier]

Does someone know what causes chest lockout/bug in multiplayer? When chests cannot be opened/destroyed by any player?

[glossy slate]

For the record so it can be searchable. With TrueNas after ElectricEel, the lloeshe container no longer works as a custom app. It works just fine by making an app using compose. I managed to get it working using a custom docker compose. Anyone looking to get this working should use https://gist.github.com/dnburgess/80c566ef7b36dc09301a4173a29d7880 as a guide. Remember to change the storage volume to your device and add a password at the minimum.

[winged gale]

Is it possible to turn of enemies completly, only having manually spawned in enemies?

Using a dedicated server/local where players pc/xbox can connect.

[sage apex]

Hello, I have a server on Ubuntu and question is how can I personalise that server (something like difficult setting, pause game when all players is offline etc.)

[proven niche]

Thanks for coming back and sharing that with us.

[proven niche]

Check the world modifiers menu at game start up to see if any of those would suit your purpose. If so, you can implement them in your server or game start up .bat or .sh file's options as well as in the game start menu.

[proven niche]

You can customize the difficulty with the options in your start up .sh file. And the server pauses when no players are present by default, anyway.

[royal portal]

Hello guys, I wanted help to be able to increase the power of my Valheim dedicated server, how can I give it more ram and stuff?

[proven niche]

What kind of dedicated server do you have? Is it a rented server from a game hosting company? If so, you'd have to go through them to increase your RAM and stuff.

[royal portal]

It is a local server to play the steam classic with a friend

dedicated

[proven niche]

Then, it will use as much RAM and stuff as you have. The only way to increase that would be to change the hardware in your PC. You could try making sure the PC isn't doing anything else when you run the server. That might help.

[final current]

IPv6 is working server-side for direct/Steam connectivity, just not on the game client currently as you've noticed. I've brought up specifics to devs. You can see some chatter in #steam-bugs-discussion a couple days ago.

There's no ETA. In the meantime, a workaround for tech-savvy players is to locally forward from IPv4 to IPv6.
e.g.

socat UDP4-LISTEN:12456,su=nobody UDP6:[2603:8080:1500:1a3e:4183:d152:6b93:4f06]:2456

Then connect to 127.0.0.1:12456 in the game for that example. I know—probably as bad as asking them to use Tailscale.

You're welcome to test against this server any time: https://discord.com/channels/391142601740517377/1331530509674741792

[elfin marsh]

is it possible to convert an existing normal server, into a dedicated server, so as not to lose progress?

[proven niche]

Yes, basically just copy the world files from one to the other. Keep the .db and .fwl file pair together. That's important.

[pseudo siren]

hey guys im on pc joining my buddys server on xbox, it runs good for a few mins then eventually i get a losing connection symbol at the top left then get disconnected. any thoughts? also when i host a server they cant join from xbox when im hosting from pc but i can join them vice versa. i have turned on cross play

[proven niche]

Need more information. Your buddys server is rented from a remote hosting company? Or, if it's a server he has at home on a PC, then what OS is that PC using? Windows? Linux?

Your server is the in-game or dedicated server? Your game PC is Windows? Linux?

Both of you are joining the servers by using the server's Join Codes?

How long have you experienced the problem? An hour? A couple hours? A few days? Longer? Is it consistent, always happens the same way?

When you try and fail to get a good connection with your buddys server, check your player log file to see if there's error codes there to explain the connection problem. There's a log file alongside your game's worlds_local folder.

[pseudo siren]

hey, we are just hosting throught the game/our own system. he is hosting the server he made off his xbox, im joining with his code. it was working for abit now it kicks me almost instantly. im on windows

[final current]

And he was joining using your join code? Was it the Join Code from the Esc screen, your logs, or somewhere else? And are you on a VPN? Have any Internet security suite running?

[toxic whale]

which server provider are u using? want to get my own server

if u dont mind me asking

[proven niche]

His post actually gives the name of his provider. GPortal.

[toxic whale]

dude didnt even read

sorry! thank you

[proven niche]

@pseudo siren It would also be good to know where you guys are both located? Same city? Same country? Different part of the world?

[toxic whale]

do i use this full port to join my server?

gives me error

[final current]

Is that from your provider? You included the port number in the Add Server dialog?

If this is a new world, you'll need to give it a minute or two to generate the initial locations and whatnot.

[toxic whale]

its been up for 10 mins

[final current]

What error are you seeing?

[toxic whale]

idk how it goes together

[final current]

OK, all of that seems fine. Are you ok if I attempt connect?

[toxic whale]

sure try it

[final current]

DNS lookup failed often indicates a syntax issue. Make sure no commas in there and that you have a colon (not semicolon) between the IP address and port.

And no space before and after

[toxic whale]

how do I use the ip correctly?

[final current]

You would go to Join Game, Add Server, then fill in 144.126.153.18:31800

Yeah, that's working for me. I got both the metadata and a password prompt on connect. I suspect there was just an issue with entering it.

[toxic whale]

thank u

[sage apex]

If I install valheim+ on Ubuntu, I need to play from begin, or can I continue play on my actual world?

[final current]

Did you mean to add the plus sign? If you're talking about Valheim Plus, you can probably get better help in #mods-discussion

[sage apex]

Ohh okay thanks

[final current]

If you're talking about plain Valheim Dedicated Server, we can probably help you with world migration

[sage apex]

I have a server on Ubuntu, and there is a option to install a valheim plus, but don't want to play from begging (if I need to start play again because install mod, better play with native valheim xD)

I install server from this link
https://www.ovhcloud.com/en/community/tutorials/how-to-install-valheim-lgsm-ubuntu/

And one more question, I beginner in Linux and servers, if I install it and do nothing to open port but server is working (friends from outside my home network can connect) is possibly I have open all port on my router, or it's just how this sercer worked (no need open port on router)

[final current]

Well, if you've been playing without mods on your game client, then it should be easy to start where you left off. I don't know Valheim Plus so can't give you advice on that one. It's generally a matter of copying your world metadata file (<world name>.fwl) and data file (<world name>.db) from your game client to the server's <saveDir>/worlds_local directory.

Where those files will be will depend on whether you're using Linux, macOS, or Windows for your game client and then whether your world is cloud-managed (if on Steam) or locally managed.

[sage apex]

My world data is already in server memory, we play there together, but the question is If I install mod on this server, need to start again so probably i need to ask on another chanel xD

[final current]

If you've not forwarded ports and your friends are able to connect to you, it probably means you're using Crossplay. In this mode, the server does not accept incoming connections, but instead makes an outbound connection to a relay server, and your friends all connect to that.

You linked a document from OVH Cloud. If this server is OVH instead of on a home LAN, you may be in a subnet that doesn't require port-forwarding.

[sage apex]

Okay it's have a sense, i'm surprised that relay server is for free. All players is from outside that LAN where the server i have

[final current]

Yeah, those relays are paid for either by the developer or publisher. They are not expensive and they make player connectivity very easy, especially for Xbox.

They are not high-performance or high-reliability, though, in my experience. If all of your players use Steam and you're willing to go the extra mile for the network setup of dropping Crossplay and enabling direct connections, then your multiplayer performance and reliability will be higher.

[sage apex]

For now is enough for us xD 0 problem with lags xD hmm maybe I just can try make a backup, install mod and if everything is good go play, or if something is wrong uninstall mod and load world from backup? But how make backup with Ubuntu? 😅

[final current]

Get to know the directory structure, starting with the GSM vhserver documentation. I think it calls it something like Gameworld in the config. If not there reading the Valheim Dedicated Server manual entry for -saveDir. It will tell you where the default is if you haven't set it. If you look in <saveDir>/worlds_local you will see the .fwl and .db files comprising the world. Note that the current state of the world is in RAM or swap and only flushed to those files periodically or when the server receives SIGINT or SIGTERM, so the files will be out of date until a save.

You'll also note some auto-backups already made in there by the server itself. How you want to do your own backups of the worlds_local dir is up to you. You will definitely want to include the main pair (.fwl and .db) in that backup though.

[sage apex]

Okay, thanks for answer. When I back to home will look at this in free time 😄 l

[chrome sable]

hello. i have some questions about my dedicated server.
i wanna try admin console commands in the server.

1.can i join and play the local world while server is online ?
2.are there any console commands able to use on cmd ?

[proven niche]

I'll try to answer your questions...

1. No, you cannot play on the same world the same time as the server. But you can make a copy of the server world and play on that with your solo game.

2. There are two kinds of console commands. Admin commands and Devcommands. You can look them up to see which ones they are. You have to authorize them differently.

[chrome sable]

thanks man and please let me know how do i make myself admin on the server

[proven niche]

Make yourself Admin by adding your Steam ID to the server's adminlist.txt file. That file is in the same folder as your server's worlds_local folder. Your Steam ID is the one with the 17 numbers, you just need the numbers.

You should put -console in your Steam game launch options so you can do F5 to open up the console.

When you get that together, type in "help" and see what commands you get with just Admin and not including devcommands.

[chrome sable]

ok i became admin

thank you for answer

[young marsh]

ok I need some help. I got my valheim server to run and I can connect without mods. Now im trying to launch it with R2ModMan so I can have mods on the server and I'm getting a 4098 error code. I've reinstalled C++ 2015-2019 for both x86 and x64 and its still giving me the same error.

[proven niche]

Are you using -crossplay? If you don't need to support Xbox or MS gamepass users, remove it.

[young marsh]

Ok I'll try that

It gets to here and stop. Doesn't show a join code or players joined. Is that normal?

[proven niche]

That's normal.

[young marsh]

So I should join via ip?

[proven niche]

Yes. From the same LAN as the server, use it's internal IP. From outside the server's LAN, use the external IP. From on the same PC, use localhost:port

[young marsh]

How do I find the internal ip?

That's the ip I port forwarded correct?

[proven niche]

Yes.

[young marsh]

It was 192.168.1.6. Now it changed to .13. Is that supposed to happen?

[proven niche]

Some routers will change an internal IP now and then. Not usually.

[young marsh]

It keeps saying failed to connect.

I might have to manually install the mods

[proven niche]

Go to the server PC, open a command window and type in "ipconfig". Use the IPv4 address.

[young marsh]

I did. Failed to connect

[proven niche]

And you're using 192.168.1.13:2456 to connect? Or with what ever port you assigned to the server?

[young marsh]

Yes. It let's me put in the password then failed to connect

[proven niche]

Just "Failed to Connect". No other error with it?

[young marsh]

Nope

[proven niche]

Does the server PC have a VPN or firewall blocking it?

[young marsh]

Nope. I have the ports forwarded through the firewall and no VPN

[proven niche]

Did you forward the ports in your router and firewall with the UDP protocol?

[young marsh]

Yes both tcp and udp

In and out

[proven niche]

Visit the geekstrom.de/valheim/check website and see if it can find the server.

[young marsh]

Alright. I'll do that

[proven niche]

Is there anything weird with your internet? Are you double NATed with CGNAT, for instance?

[young marsh]

I have my nat type set to open

[proven niche]

Well, if that website finds your server, something's blocking your local traffic. If it doesn't, then somethings blocking your PC.

[young marsh]

Alright. Thank you

[proven niche]

I hope you find the problem. I know that's frustrating. 🙏

[final current]

When going with Steam/direct connectivity, I highly recommend setting up a DHCP reservation for your MAC address in the router so that your ethernet adapter always gets the same LAN IP address. Makes things more predictable when setting up the forwarding rules and whatnot.

[covert jewel]

My router (sometimes) requires a reboot for any changes to 'stick'. Might give that a whirl

Might also be (presuming Windows) Firewall a/o Anti-Virus blocking. Exclude the game's folder/EXE in both

[dusk current]

Anyone had issues connecting mac app version to apex hosting?

[final current]

I couldn't imagine something specific to the macOS versions or Apex Hosting. What are you seeing? And is it the Steam version or Apple App Store?

[elfin marsh]

is this process the same if the original server was made through the mac version from the app store, not steam?

[dusk current]

App store version

[proven niche]

I suspect it is the same but I don't know for sure. Creating and testing the copy should be easy enough.

[final current]

In that case, I think you'll need to enable Crossplay, @dusk current. I don't think the App Store version supports direct connection to the server

[dusk current]

Ah ok. Will try that. Thanks!

[final current]

Sure thing. It's on a long list of things I'd love to address with a mod, but there's not enough time in the world.

[dusk current]

For posterity: fix was enable crossplay then restart the server

[tardy mist]

what do i do if i want to completely wipe my server?

[final current]

On Linux, macOS, or Windows, and installed via Steam or SteamCMD?

[final current]

And are you looking to just wipe the world and start fresh or want to get rid of any file or folder related to the server?

[timid berry]

What kind of specs does a dedicated server need?

For 3-4 ppl

[rain thistle]

If I want to move my dedicated server from my old pc to my new one, with the world and everything

Would that be much of a hazzle?

I'd hate to start over after finally reaching plains

[storm lark]

hoping someone can help... I'm running my own dedicated server on a separate linux box, and I'm wondering if i'm able to get back into the console of the running server when I ssh into the computer somehow? is that at all possible?

also wondering if there's a graceful way to restart the server without losing any data

[proven niche]

I use the free NoMachine app for remote GUI access between my Linux server and my desktop PC. It works great and uses very little resource.

When you're ready to restart the server, shut it down gracefully with a Ctrl+C command and it will do a save as it shuts down.

[storm lark]

I'll check that out. Any way to do it with my current instance though?

Or just shut it down and hope for the best haha

[proven niche]

Always use a Ctrl+C from the server's CLI or GUI to shut it down.

[storm lark]

Right, but mine is currently running as a process that I started through an SSH terminal that has since closed

The process is still going, but I don't know how to access it anymore

[proven niche]

I don't know either. Sorry.

Maybe @final current can help you with that. Or some other expert who knows how to deal with 'SSH only' access to Linux servers and their running processes.

But you really should always shut it down gracefully with a save on the way down.

[storm lark]

bummer. thanks for responding though!

yes, I'm wanting to shut it down gracefully. in my haste to get it up and running in the first place, I guess I didn't set up everything I needed. live and learn I guess

it's all backed up, so I shouldn't lose too much if anything, so I'm not too woried about that

[proven niche]

It's simple. Just use the NoMachine app I mentioned and run the server in it's own terminal window, in the background, if you like. There's no need to use SteamCMD or run it as a process. I've been doing exactly that with all my servers for years now and never had a problem.

[storm lark]

that's what I'm going to do, but I still need to restart this one to get it into that wouldn't i?

[proven niche]

Yes, the server's running process will have the server's world files 'in use' and they need to be shut down gracefully. Ideally.

There's a chance you won't corrupt the server world or lose a lot of progress by just stopping the process but it's a risk with serious consequences.

If it were me, I'd do a Google search for 'how to stop a linux process gracefully' and see what comes up. Give their new AI search bot something to chew on.

[storm lark]

yeah... been trying that... mostly it's just "kill -INT PID" i think

[proven niche]

Google says to use "kill -SIGTERM PID"

[proven niche]

It's really just a matter of copy/pasting the worlds two file pair (.fwl and .db) from the old location's worlds_local folder to the new one. Keep the file pair together. That's important.

[proven niche]

A decent CPU, any old graphics, and about 16GB RAM and 50GB or so free on your H/D would be nice.

[final current]

Hey, how did you start the process in the SSH terminal to keep it going? nohup, ampersand at the end, screen, tmux?

In absence of a process forker or supervisor, chances are it terminated on its own.

[final current]

It's definitely doable. You should be able to copy over the entire saveDir and would need to make sure your startup script references the same world name in the server start parameters. If you need help, you'll want to tell us whether you're using Linux, macOS, or Windows for the old PC and the new PC.

[rain thistle]

Windows 10 old pc and 11 on the new one

If that matters

[final current]

Alrighty. In getting things migrated there are going to be two main customizations to bring over:

• However you're starting the server and supplying it your own arguments. For Windows users, this is often a modification of start_headless_server.bat or a copy of the file you've created.
• Your saveDir. If you look in your startup script, see if you've specified a custom -saveDir command line argument. If you haven't, then this is likely in the default location, which is %USERPROFILE%/AppData/LocalLow/IronGate/Valheim
  You can see more information about this in the manual under Running the Dedicated Server.

The default saveDir is also the default location for the game client in Windows, so if you play the game on the same PC that hosted the server, this will not only contain worlds, but also any locally-managed characters and settings. Inside of this saveDir, you can decide which sub-directories to copy over to wherever your saveDir will be on the new PC. If you are only interested in the server assets, you can just copy worlds_local from your old saveDir to your new one.

As long as this server starts up with the correct -world <world name> argument, it should bring up that world from the copied <saveDir>/worlds_local directory.

[storm lark]

that's what I would have thought too, but I havn't been using anything (that I know of, might be something under the hood) I've just been doing ./start_server.sh

I've been logging in fine when the terminal is closed as well

[final current]

Cool, then that will keep going until sshd realizes you've disconnected. That can take longer than you'd think, but is likely to happen eventually. You can do something like ps -Af | grep valheim_server.x86_64 to see if it's still running.

If it is and you really want to re-attach it to a new terminal to see the log output and keep it going, check out a tool called reptyr. Let's say you've found the soon-orphaned valheim to be still running as PID 74280. You'd start your new SSH session and run reptyr 74280. reptyr requies some kernel features to be enabled under a root session in order to do this process re-parenting. You can see those steps here:
https://github.com/nelhage/reptyr?tab=readme-ov-file#ptrace_scope-on-ubuntu-maverick-and-up

In the future, to prevent this, I highly recommend getting to know a terminal multiplexer like GNU Screen or tmux. When you start the server under a session in one of these, you can re-attach to your session with ease and without deep kernel features required. Furthermore, it is properly backgrounded when you terminate or disconnect your SSH connection unexpectedly so is not going to die when sshd realizes you've disconnected.

I personally prefer tmux.

[storm lark]

🙏 many thanks! I'll check all of those out. I managed to find the process and get the server restarted using screen now. I'll check out tmux too!

[final current]

Great, and for termination, either the INT or TERM signals will trigger graceful shutdown with save in the most recent versions of Valheim Dedicated Server.

[storm lark]

that's good to know

[timid berry]

Ty

[molten beacon]

once I have ran a dedicated server for 4ppl on an old laptop with i7-2670QM. There was no mods. Ran with no problems.

I mean, there was a problem. It killed router. I had to change the server ping from 5000 to 250 in Steam then it was all good

[tardy mist]

wipe the world start feresh

[final current]

Do you want to keep the same world seed for a similar map on this new run, or start with a new randomized seed?

[final current]

One easy way to start fresh with a new world is to simply come up with a new world name. You'd then adjust whatever script or config you use to launch the server and change your -world <world name> parameter. If you supply a world name that hasn't previously existed, this new world will be generated on the next server start.

[fresh sleet]

Hello friends, I have a problem... I can't transfer my world to a dedicated server, can you please help me?

[proven niche]

For a vanilla server, it's really just a matter of copy/pasting the worlds two file pair (.fwl and .db) from the old location's worlds_local folder to the new one. Keep the file pair together. That's important.

[frigid laurel]

hi all, having some issues with dedicated server. Running on windows 10. Everytime i try to run the batch file it crashes at the point shown in the screenshot. Looking through the log files, and found these lines, could this be anything to do with the crash? : [2025-01-26 16:39:57] Client version: 1737515347
[2025-01-26 16:39:57] ThreadedReadFromDisk: loading appinfo cache from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Valheim dedicated server/appcache/appinfo.vdf [2025-01-26 16:39:57] ThreadedReadFromDisk: failed to open file: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Valheim dedicated server/appcache/appinfo.vdf

Would appreciate if anyone could help, been at this for a few hours now

[proven niche]

You can add the -logfile "...path\ServerLog.txt" option to your start .bat file's exec line to get a server log file. Then go through it to see if there's any "ERROR:" lines in there that might explain the issue.

The screen shot you have above shows normal activity after a server crash. It doesn't show the part about why it crashed which would be above all the stuff in your screen shot.

[frigid laurel]

thank you! ill try get the error logs. did look through the other sections above what i screenshotted, couldnt see anything specifically failing.

error logs gave me this. mentions something about shaders, any ideas?

[proven niche]

The "NullReferenceException:" errors in there is what's causing the problem.

That's usually due to trying to use an out of date and broken mod. The errors don't say exactly which one it is. Check your mods for the date they were last updated by their authors. Anything over about 3 months is suspected of being too old.

Shader lines can be ignored as they pertain to graphics issues and dedicated servers don't use graphics.

[stoic anvil]

Hi so it's my server that's have the issue but there are no mods on it.

[proven niche]

Then, try re-verifying the server's files.

[stoic anvil]

I've done that so many times today. I think I might just reformat the PC and install everything from scratch again.

[proven niche]

Reformatting your PC is a bonkers extreme measure not appropriate under these curcumstances.

Just delete the "Valheim dedicated server" folder and reinstall the server from your Steam GUI.

[stoic anvil]

I've done that twice. I've been trying to fix this for 3 hours and everytime it just gets worse.
It's a PC specifically for valheim, so it's not that big a deal.

[final current]

Can you show us your startup script or starting command line? (feel free to obfuscate any password). And then can you show the contents of C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Valheim dedicated server\steam_appid.txt?

Your logs indicate the server is trying to authenticate to Steam APIs using the server's app ID instead of the main game's.

01/26/2025 17:12:47: Using steam_appid.txt
01/26/2025 17:12:47: Using steam APPID:896660
01/26/2025 17:12:47: Invalid APPID
01/26/2025 17:12:47: Steam is not initialized
01/26/2025 17:12:47: Awake of network backend failed

That should be APPID:892970, even for the server. Likely the incorrect number is coming from one of these sources:

• The steam_appid.txt file I mentioned above
• A SteamAppId environment variable set by your startup script or just prior to execution.
• Steam itself, e.g. launching the dedicated server through the library entry.

[trim urchin]

anyone know if there is a way to limit portals? where an admin can place portals, but otherwise the server is noportal

[final current]

I don't know a way in vanilla. The admin using Server devcommands mod on their client might be able to place a portal in debugmode, key-press B despite the noportals flag, but I'm not sure about that. Note the admin will get a lot of item spoilers in that mode.

@stoic anvil I meant to mention you on this note since it's your server: #dedicated-server message

[devout whale]

CAN SOME HELP ME WITCH THIS SHIET ?

[final current]

What are you trying to do? Have you read the Valheim_Dedicated_Server_Manual.pdf?

[devout whale]

i think its works

how i can save the world ?

[final current]

If a player is in the adminlist, they can initiate a save from the game console by entering the save command. Otherwise, the server saves the world changes to disk every 30 minutes or whatever value was supplied for the -saveinterval argument. On Windows and Linux, the dedicated server will also save if the server is terminated normally (e.g. Ctrl+C in cmd.exe, PowerShell, or linux terminal. Alternatively SIGINT or SIGTERM sent to the Linux process)

[devout whale]

can some help pls i have this

[final current]

Looks like a connectivity issue. Having the game server and client both connected to the Internet via ethernet instead of Wi-fi is highly recommended. It could also be your connection to your ISP.

If you're using Crossplay on the server, it could also be a low quality or poorly-located relay node. If all of your players use the Steam version of the game and you have networking savvy, consider dropping Crossplay and forwarding the game's UDP ports over your router to allow for direct connectivity.

[devout whale]

we are playing on xbox pass togheder

[final current]

Alright, then Crossplay must stay on.

[devout whale]

my friend have good internet conection and it was the same problem

can i change this ip serwer dedicted to hamachi ?

[final current]

The PC running the server is on a good connection too?

[devout whale]

i thinks so

i am hosting this

i have good network

[final current]

You might need to be specific when you say hamachi. Are you talking about LogMeIn Hamachi, the VPN service? A VPN is more likely to make the connection unreliable. The server ought not to be using any VPN software unless the operator knows exactly how they want to route the outbound connection to the relay server. Same goes for most Internet security suite software.

[mild scarab]

i want to transfer my world to my dedicated server when i tried to add the .db and .fwl file it wouldnt worked i tried changing the name in the startserver.sh file but it makes a completly new world ( idk if its becuase i havnt deleted it from my pc or what

[final current]

To what directory did you copy those files to? And can you paste us your server command line—the line starting with ./valheim_server.x86_64 in your start_server.sh script.

[mild scarab]

./valheim_server.x86_64 -name "blazes blazing server" -port 2456 -world "dissRIZZw6" -password "gemalot" -crossplay

[final current]

Alright. /.config isn't the right place if / is the true root of your Linux file system. You'll want to put it relative to the home directory of the user you're launching the server as. Effectively ~/.config/…. Alternatively, see the manual PDF for the -savedir argument documentation on configuring a specific directory. It always looks in the <savedir>/worlds_local directory for the world.

Make sure you make a backup of this world if you haven't already. You don't want to accidentally replace it with the fresh version that's been created now.

[mild scarab]

i run it on a game panel not the direct server also .config/ is correct

[final current]

OK, which game panel suite? Note the ~ in that doc and my note. That represents the user's home directory.

[mild scarab]

pufferpanel

[final current]

Thanks, and with Standard environment or Docker?

[mild scarab]

i use portainer for my docker

im not running through valheim-docker in pufferpanel if thats what ur asking

[final current]

OK, thanks. Looks like it will run as the user pufferpanel with a typical install:
https://github.com/pufferpanel/pufferpanel/blob/dacd6722229005dc40294358579de28db638cc41/systemd/servicefiles/pufferpanel.service#L8
So the worlds would probably be in /home/pufferpanel/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local

If you copy your own into there, be sure to give them the same user and group ownership that pufferpanel is using for the files it manages.

[final current]

Sorry, looks like it configures a custom home:
/var/lib/pufferpanel/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local

[mild scarab]

probably not that exact path caue /var/lib/pufferpanel leads to (image) but i then went to /var/lib/pufferpanel/sevrers/16gb36ac (my valheim server and got the image below)

[final current]

This file manager you're using might hide folders starting with . by default.

[mild scarab]

i am using winscp

any idea how to change that

[final current]

See the top option of Panels preference pane: https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_pref_panels

[mild scarab]

ty

[mild scarab]

btw it doesnt really matter if i upload via application or directly cuase this path just shows me whats on the game server doesnt really fix the issue

[final current]

So your fresh blank world isn't at /var/lib/pufferpanel/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local?

[mild scarab]

i want to just upload my world from my pc to the server

i tried to already but yes its there

[final current]

OK, great, so stop your server, replace the fresh/blank dissRIZZw6.fwl and dissRIZZw6.db in that directory with the ones from your PC and give them the pufferpanel user and group ownership. Then restart your server.

[mild scarab]

the thing is the files in there are the ones from my pc

[final current]

So the dissRIZZw6.db file is several MB in size?

[mild scarab]

yes

well its 1mb cuase its fairly new but thats beside the point what i was trying to do was make the world on single player with a set seed and setup preferences then transfer it

[final current]

OK, and you're setting the world name as dissRIZZw6 in PufferPanel itself? PufferPanel looks like it will ignore your start_server.sh file.

And the owner/group membership thing I mentioned for the files is critical. The pufferpanel user is not a superuser, so it will need explicit read/write access to both files.

[mild scarab]

the name yes the seed no

the thing is im pretty sure it can its not that the server isnt working its that its loading the wrong seed

• ive used a valheim dedicated server on puffer panel on a different server

and worked fine

thats partly why im a bit lost

[final current]

So if you were to do

ls -l /var/lib/pufferpanel/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local

does it show pufferpanel pufferpanel for both dissRIZZw6.fwl and dissRIZZw6.db?

[mild scarab]

also /var/lib/pufferpanel/sevrers/16gb36ac/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local is the correct path but it shows owner as root

[final current]

Alright. If you added those yourself, that could be the issue.
https://docs.pufferpanel.com/en/latest/faq.html#q-i-am-getting-permission-errors-with-my-files

[mild scarab]

i added it through pufferpanel upload

which is the same way i did it on a different server

[mild scarab]

which btw i dont do that i always use the applications upload or if i need to the set sftp things

[final current]

OK, let's see what user puffer is actually using. Can you try these?:
ps -Af | grep puffer
ps -Af | grep valheim_server.x86_64
the leftmost column will be the user they are running as.

[mild scarab]

where

[final current]

In a terminal on the server.

Such as over SSH

Same place you ran ls -l /var/lib…

[final current]

OK, so it's running as root. That might explain the file owner/group and at least at the moment, Valheim Dedicated Server isn't running.

Given it's running as root instead of the regular pufferpanel user, you may want to check /root/servers/… instead of the usual /var/lib/puffer….

[mild scarab]

its not that its not running its just not getting the right seed and stuff

[mild scarab]

btw this is on the host server pufferpanel is just like any theres not select users if you used pterdactyl it would still run off root im pretty sure

there isnt a path in /root called servers

/root doesnt have anything relevent for what were doing here

[final current]

Yeah, I understand that part re the wrong seed. Just want to make sure the right world dir is being used… it's the most common reason for it not being the same world seed you imported.

Is this a fairly recent version of pufferpanel? By all looks, it should not be running as root on the latest versions. Are you running it in a docker container or as a systemd unit, or running it in a custom way?

[mild scarab]

anything pufferpanel related is in /var/lib/pufferpanel but i run docker through portainer

would it be possible to hop on a vc as the more we talk the more confused im getting

[final current]

I would, but gotta head to bed in a couple mins. How did you install pufferpanel? The deb-based instructions here? https://docs.pufferpanel.com/en/latest/installing.html#installing

[mild scarab]

yeh

[final current]

And then you started it with sudo systemctl enable --now pufferpanel?

[mild scarab]

yeh ive been using pufferpanel

for other stuff aswell

i know ive installed it correctly

if thats what ur getting to

i had my friend verify its working whos ran a hosting company before

and does this kind of stuff for a living

[final current]

I believe you. It's just that their systemd unit (e.g. started with systemctl) is supposed to run under their regular pufferpanel user:
https://github.com/pufferpanel/pufferpanel/blob/dacd6722229005dc40294358579de28db638cc41/systemd/servicefiles/pufferpanel.service#L9
but I'm shooting in the dark here as I've not used pufferpanel.

Sorry I haven't been more helpful.

[mild scarab]

its ok

[mild scarab]

if somebody else can fix it id appriciate it cuase although he tried i still need help

[final current]

If you want to know for sure where Valheim Dedicated Server thinks home is, you can do this while it's running:
sudo strings /proc/$(pgrep -f valheim_server.x86_64)/environ | grep HOME

And you might also get some hints from the dedicated server's log file (wherever pufferpanel happens to put it)

[final current]

I just rented a server on Amazon to try puffer out and systemd is indeed running it as the pufferpanel user instead of root:

$ sudo systemctl enable --now pufferpanel
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pufferpanel.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/pufferpanel.service.
$ sudo ps -Af | grep puffer
pufferp+    2508       1  1 07:55 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/pufferpanel runService --config /etc/pufferpanel/config.json

but maybe I misunderstood you and you didn't install it through their deb way and instead installed it as a docker image via portainer?

[mild scarab]

ok so i did lie i had my friend set it up but as said that friend is the friend who did hosting before so i may not exactly know what he did but he knows what he did and made sure it was setup properly

[final current]

Alright, then he may be the only one qualified to troubleshoot it unfortunately. I do recommend trying that strings command while the server is running to see exactly where the server thinks is HOME, but that could easily be a volume mounted in a container that we won't know the ins and outs of:

sudo strings /proc/$(pgrep -f valheim_server.x86_64)/environ | grep HOME

[mild scarab]

sudo: strings: command not found

i have tried to ask him but he mostly just ignores me

[final current]

Alright, you can install strings with sudo apt-get install binutils . Strings simply displays text from a binary file. Once installed you can try that command again.

If he's been unresponsive, it might help to start to get the lay of the land.

docker ps
``` will give you an idea of what's running as a container in the system.
Portainer's web dashboards might give you a similar insight. Would be good to know if pufferpanel is running as a container. That would be an easy explanation for why it's running as root.

[mild scarab]

it is running as a container

strings: '/proc//environ': No such file

[final current]

Alright. Not sure why if the Valheim server was started. If you don't see valheim running in ps -A or docker ps, you might need to investigate why that is. It would seem odd you'd be able to connect to the server without it.

Back to the pufferpanel container, if docker ps shows you the name(s) of the container running pufferpanel you can do this to see what real locations on your host machine have been mounted inside of pufferpanel:

docker inspect --format='{{.Mounts}}' pufferpanel

(replacing pufferpanel with one of the container's names or ID as found in docker ps)
Hopefully it mounts your host's /var/lib/pufferpanel or a similar dir to the docker container's /var/lib/pufferpanel.

I have to head to bed, but we can chat more on our next times overlap. Hopefully you'll be able to figure it out. Best of luck!

[mild scarab]

thx

[mild scarab]

i still dont think its a problem with the server server but

[mild scarab]

i got it workin

[devout whale]

can some help

[zenith canopy]

Is not being able to open chests or doors, a common issue

[proven niche]

That symbol is triggered by a comm interruption. It can be caused by a number of things depending on your situation. Is it just suddenly happening for no apparent reason? Were you ever able to play without it? What kind of server are you playing on?

[devout whale]

dificult server on valheim

[proven niche]

That can be caused by your game pausing unexpectedly for some reason. Are you playing solo or on a server? Is this a sudden new thing or are you just starting out?

[devout whale]

we played 3 min on sewer

and my friends got that symbol

[proven niche]

You can ask your friends to turn of their VPNs and Firewalls temporarily to see if the problem goes away.

If not, and you don't need -crossplay to support Xbox users or gamepass users, turn off crossplay and forward the server's ports in your router to the server's internal IP address using the IPv4 UDP protocol.

If you're playing on a rented server, you may be able to do that in their menu system.

[zenith canopy]

I play on a server with 2 of my friends
It's not new as such I have about 90hrs of playtime and it has occurred about 5 times I'd say

Had to restart the server to get rid of it

Sometimes I even lose ore in the smelter because of these de sync 🫠

[proven niche]

Is it possible that one of the players has a bad connection to the server and occasionally causes the comm delay or time-out that creates the desync?

It could also be caused by simple lack of resources for the server hardware, too. If the server ran out of RAM available and had to go to it's swap file, for example.

Another possibility would be an out of date or broken mod interrupting the server's normal processing.

[zenith canopy]

Soo I'm running it on an oracle vm 4 cores and 8 gb of ram
I monitered the usage to see if anything went wrong but the usage hovers around 25% so nothing wrong there ig
I dont have any mods installed either maybe it is a network issue because one guy plays on his wifi while the rest of us are on ethernet

[proven niche]

Does it only happen when the Wifi guy is around? Or when one of you is working at a large complicated base? Is the server host PC struggling to support the VM sometimes. Maybe because of Anti-virus scans or other background tasks? Are you sure that the server and all the players don't have any mods? If the server has no mods, it's hard to tell if the players don't. What about the -crossplay question? You using it? Do you need it?

[zenith canopy]

Well all of us hop on the game and play at the same time so yes the wifi guy is always around but his ping is around 30 same as us

And there isn't any antivirus running as the virtual computer is running on ubuntu and I just installed the server and nothing else

And no none of my friends are using mods

Not using crossplay either as all of us are on pc

[proven niche]

Having to restart the server to free up the doors and chests when the problem occurs is very unusual. And this has happened at more than just one location? If you haven't already done so, reverify the server and game files.

[final current]

Yeah, I usually have to restart the game/client when it happens. Unfortunately have never known a full fix. Can happen even when connected over fully-wired LAN to the server with good CPU/RAM on both sides, though is rare for me.

[proven niche]

I'm out of ideas. If it were something corrupted in the world, it would be a consistent issue not random. 🤷‍♂️

[ivory salmon]

What would be the best way to rent a dedicated server that supports both pc and xbox?

[final current]

Most vendors should provide you the option to enable the dedicated server's "Crossplay" feature. That's what you'll need. If it lets you customize the command line, it would be the addition of the -crossplay argument.

Ideally one that gives you the Crossplay join code to supply to Xbox players, or at least access to the server log so you can find it yourself to give to those players.

[storm osprey]

Hello. stupid question, but how do i run my dedicated server on LAN only?

[proven niche]

Follow the instructions that came with it but don't forward it's ports in your router.

[storm osprey]

how do i do that? xD

[proven niche]

Connect to it using it's internal IP address. You can't suport Xbox users, though.

[storm osprey]

oh, thats exactly what im trying to do lol

[proven niche]

How do you do what?

[proven niche]

What is it you're trying to do?

[storm osprey]

just trying to play with my housemate whos on xbox

just used whatever IP the server was showing me

[proven niche]

Then, you need to start the server with -crossplay and use the Join Code the server gives you. You don't need to forward anything in your router.

And the only way you can limit external access it by not giving out the server password or Join Code.

With crossplay both the server and all players must go through the MS playfab network. Even when it's all on the same LAN.

[storm osprey]

gotcha. thank you

[waxen path]

Hello, please.. I need help over here;

I play in a dedicated server for fine for approx. 3 weeks. And then 2 days ago the server updated the modpack. I install the new modpack, login and play for 20 minutes before got disconnected.

and from then i can't connect back, it said failed to connect each time i try.

1. I can connect to the other dedicated server that is on my list. The prob is only on this list.

2. I tried to uninstall the latest modpack update, nothin change.

3. I reinstall the modpack, valheim, modmanager, clean the chache, and still nothin.

4. Admin said that whitelist status ist okay.

This is the log whenever i try to connect to server now:

[proven niche]

Tried connecting to the server with it's IP address or the Join Code?

[waxen path]

Ip adress

[proven niche]

It says you're having a time out problem. It does'nt seem to be mod related. Has anything changed with your PC? Like using a VPN now or anything with your internet? Test it with your PC's Firewall turned off.

[waxen path]

I didnt use vpn, and i tried turning off the firewall.. it didnt work.. and its only to this specific dedicated, the other dedicated server on my list is connecting fine..

[proven niche]

Is the other server Valheim? I ask because Valheim uses IPv4 and UPD protocol to communicate. Many other game servers don't.

There's nothing new with your gameing PC? You haven't installed anything or removed anything since you were able to connect before? Nothing has changed with your internet?

You should try connecting with the Join Code, if you haven't already.

[waxen path]

Yes, other valheim dedicated server i can connect finely..

Nope, i was disconnected at 2 am two nights ago and since then i lost the connection. I did remove my antivirus app, to see wether it cause the prob. But nothinf chamge.

[proven niche]

You haven't said whether you've used the server's Join Code to join this time around or not?

You said you could connect to the server and play for 20 minutes once. Can you now not even get to the password prompt?

[waxen path]

I havent join with code, ill ask the admins..

Yes, after the last session, i havent got the password prompt.

[proven niche]

It looks to me like the playfab network is letting you time out rather than connecting you to the server. I just have no way of knowing why.

It's possible it's your IP address that's not recognized and going on through the playfab network. The Join Code might do better.

[trim locust]

I remember that used to be my issue. Connecting to my own server, failed to connect, kept trying and after about 5 tries it connects, sometimes first go, but others connecting had no problem, so I tried useing my vpn and set it to Australia (I live in Australia) and it connected no problems every time

[silent stream]

What mods tend to cause lots of lag on the dedicated server?

[knotty oracle]

All, play vanilla.

[proven niche]

You'll get better information about mods if you ask in the #mods-discussion channel where they know about mods.

[mental fractal]

is there no normal combat difficulty for dedicated server. I want to cahnge form hard to normal but there is only easy or very easy?

[proven niche]

There are several ways to change the combat level but it sounds like you're using the world modifier menu at game start up.

So, you can not use the buttons at all. Instead go to the slider next to the combat setting and click on the middle of it to get to 'normal'.

Or, you could click on the Reset to Normal button and reset everything, including combat, back to default normal settings.

[mental fractal]

the server runs on its own computer there is no game start up menu nor game start up. Im tryna figure out this for my friend and i. I dont know how these things work. He couldnt find a way to get the server to normal combat difficulty.

[proven niche]

Which method did he use to modify it in the first place?

[mental fractal]

he put combat modifier normal in the server starter.patch file but it didnt do anything. He tried to do the same with combat modifier easy and it changed to easy.

this is what the server manual says. Is there no normal modifier for this lol

[final current]

Try -modifier Combat Default or -modifier Combat None

[graceful isle]

Where can I find the recommended specs for a dedicated server? Ideally for 8-10 players.

[final current]

There are no official requirements, but community has made some recommendations here:
https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Dedicated_servers#Requirements
It needs a couple revisions, as it is compatible with Windows 2022 and macOS now. It is less demanding than the regular game client. I would still recommend wired ethernet only (no Wi-fi), no 3rd-party Internet security suites or VPNs running (OS/kernel firewalls are fine), and an SSD for the saveDir.

The Linux version depends on glibc; I don't think it will work on a musl OS like Alpine out of the box.

If you plan on having direct connectivity facilitated by Steam (instead of using Crossplay), hosting on a network where an administrator has access to router settings and some knowledge of what they mean would be a plus, as you'll need to forward a couple UDP ports over NAT.

[graceful isle]

Thank you.

[frail vigil]

I made a server that's being hosted on a laptop I had no use for(windows, not Linux although I might switch to linux for it in the near future) and wanted to know if anyone knows of a program or simple way for me to get notified either through email, phone or discord when my server goes down, any help would be appreciated

[final current]

I don't know Windows very well, but you might be able to write a Powershell script that either sees if the proces is running using something like this:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/get-proces

or if you want to go deeper, maybe this will show you if the UDP end point is still established:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/nettcpip/get-netudpendpoint

If it's -public and not using Crossplay, you can also use the Valve Query Port in a script.
Node.js: https://www.npmjs.com/package/gamedig
Python: https://github.com/Yepoleb/python-a2s

as for emailing, you can use this with your SMTP server:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/send-mailmessage
Discord has an API and there are text gateways out there like Twilio or Amazon SES you could leverage for SMS. Sometimes easier to have it email your SMS carrier's email-to-text bridge.

[paper veldt]

Valheim Family I really need your help it makes no sense but if i take the start_headless_server.bat file and launch it my server works, if i make a copy of it and change world, name, and password it just crashes over and over. I included a crash file which makes no sense to me...any idea what i am doing wrong?

NVM

im DUMB it was 4 character password its supposed to be 5 LOL

everyone we did it

[paper veldt]

question how come when the server boots up it says things like ERROR: shader textmeshpro/distance field shader is not supported on this gpup none of the ssubshaders/fallbacks are suitable

the server cares about what video card i have?

[final current]

The server tries to load some gameplay shaders unnecessarily. It's been low priority to fix, given it works fine following the shader failures.

[frail vigil]

Thank you for the ideas, for now I think I'll just rely on my friends telling me if the server goes down until I properly switch to linux though

[tame laurel]

Hi I'm at the east modded server and all portals are not showing up......just the ones where i'm standing at. Please help this is val con east server

[proven niche]

This channel is for help with personal dedicated vanilla servers. We cannot help you with 3rd party hosting site servers. You'll have to refer to their support options at the hosting Co. site.

[languid spoke]

not entirely sure where to post this . I'm on a dedicated server that a friend has sorted for us and quite often when we enter new areas it doesn't load in completely, most of the time its just open areas with nothing, no trees or rocks. Sometimes it will eventually catch up but with a lot of the dungeons caves etc they just don't show. Any help would be great as we've been struggling to figure it

[proven niche]

It sounds like the server is getting bogged down for some reason. There are unfortunately many reasons that could happen.

One of the players in the same area as the problem with a bad connection can cause the problem for everyone there. The first person into an area 'controls' the rendering of the area by the server for everyone.

An old and broken mod on the server or one of the players can also cause it. Review any mods in use to assure they've been recently updated for the current game version by their authors.

The server running out of resources such as not enough RAM or a weak CPU can cause it, too.

And most importantly, if you don't need crossplay to support Xbox or gamepass users, remove it. If you do, you'll need to have your router forward the server's ports with the UDP protocol to it's internal IPv4 address.

[plucky zealot]

on a gportal dedicated server & keep getting this everytime i type in devcommands or debugmode. my steam id is on admin txt file & on gportal dashboard. unsure if this is the proper channel,hoping someone can help.

[proven niche]

That's caused by an out of date or broken mod. Check all your mods to see that they've been recently updated by their authors.

And, probably any further discussions should go to the #mods-issues channels. They may have better information there.

[gleaming narwhal]

Anyone encounter an bug where friend joins the server and aren't able to see eachother?

[final current]

I've not encountered that. Any mods?

[proven niche]

Use your F2 key info window to see if he's actually on the server.

[frozen robin]

How to set my dedicated server to be hard/hardcore difficulty or to activate fire hazard?

[covert jewel]

#dedicated-server message

[gleaming narwhal]

I appreciate the reply! I was able to solve this last night by reconfiguring my port-forwarding settings. I got a new router/modem since I last hosted my friend's & I's server 😅

[gleaming narwhal]

Thank you for the reply 🙂
#dedicated-server message

[cobalt lion]

Anyone know the issue for this? Whenever someone is sitting in the boat they are vibrating / shaking. Does not happen on client side, only when viewing others sitting in the boat

[vast crag]

If I want a dedicated server with player-based events and nomap, is the correct parameter syntax: -setkey nomap -setkey PlayerEvents or do I only need one -setkey

What I have atm: -preset casual -DeathPenalty veryeasy -resources muchmore -setkey nomap -setkey PlayerEvents

[final current]

Close. I think it would be -preset casual -modifier DeathPenalty veryeasy -modifier Resources muchmore -setkey nomap -setkey playerevents

[vast crag]

Oh its case sensitive? Thanks

I ended up setting them in-game but I'll fix that next time I restart the server

[final current]

I don't think it's case sensitive, but was missing the -modifier arguments. Those are strange 3-part argument structures. If you've got it set in-game now, that's great. Not really needed to apply it in command line on top of that.

[kind osprey]

Hello! :)

I'm struggling with setting up my server on my debian server. When I run the start_server.sh file it quickly runs into errors saying "The WorldGenerator instance was null"

[final current]

Anything indicating the original problem likely happens before that. WorldGenerator being null tends to be an effect of the real issue instead of a cause.

Feel free to attach your server log, omitting anything you want to keep private.

[kind osprey]

I've both reinstalled and validated the server files multiple times

[final current]

Thanks. This is probably the primary problem:

CreateBoundSocket: ::bind couldn't find an open port between 2457 and 2457
[Steamworks.NET] GameServer.Init() failed.

You likely have another instance of the server running in another shell, terminal multiplexer, container runtime, or in your init system (e.g. systemd).

[kind osprey]

Oooh...

I'll see if I can kill that process then.

[final current]

You could get a hint on which process is bound to 2457 using something like sudo ss --listening --udp --processes

[kind osprey]

It seems to be working now o.o

It's placing stuff at least

It worked! :D

Thank you so much :))

[brave lily]

Hey everybody I'm trying to host a vanilla server with world modifiers for my friends and I to play on, but everytime i set up the world and try to put it into the dedicated server details, it doesnt pull the same seed, or any of the modifiers i placed. can anybody help me with this?

@final current you seem to be the go to guy for help. would very much appreciate any 🙂

[final current]

Can certainly try. Can you send us your start command line (e.g. from the batch file/shell script/systemd unit) you're using?

[brave lily]

you mean from the start_headless_server right?

[final current]

yep, if that's how you launch it

[brave lily]

yessir. i launched it, you want the beginning of it?

[final current]

Just the line that starts with start valheim_server…. Feel free to obfuscate the password if there is one

[brave lily]

im sorry i might be looking in the wrong area. I started the server, and the C:WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe comes up, the first line is "starting server press ctrl-c to exit"

[final current]

Yeah, no problem. Whatever you use to edit your start_headless_server.bat copy, e.g. Notepad, Visual Studio Code, go ahead and open it in that and paste us the start line.

[brave lily]

@echo off
set SteamAppId=892970

echo "Starting server PRESS CTRL-C to exit"

REM Tip: Make a local copy of this script to avoid it being overwritten by steam.
REM NOTE: Minimum password length is 5 characters & Password cant be in the server name.
REM NOTE: You need to make sure the ports 2456-2458 is being forwarded to your server through your local router & firewall.
valheim_server -nographics -batchmode -name "mattressexp" -port 2456 -world "mattressexp" -password "" -crossplay

[final current]

OK. Looks good. And you have placed your desired mattressexp.fwl and mattressexp.db in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local? Where %USERPROFILE% is your Windows user's profile dir, usually something like C:\Users\<username> or something generated for your Microsoft ID.

[brave lily]

the .fwl is there ,as well as mattressexp.db.old but not a .db

a quick summary of what i did. i created a world, named it, random seed. added world modifiers. then entered the world. logged out, put the info in for the server.
but when you join "mattressexp" its not the same map, and modifiers arent working

[final current]

If you're using Windows' File Explorer, it will often hide file extensions by default, so you'd want to opt to show those.

When you say it's not the same map, you mean you had started a world and modified it on a local game client, before copying it to your dedicated server?

[brave lily]

i created it with the options of "dedicated server" selected and cross platform selected.

[final current]

Created it where?

[brave lily]

in the valheim game screen. im sorry if im a little slow with this, i havent set up a sever since 2021 😦

[final current]

It's no worries. OK, and this local game screen, that was on the same PC that you're running the server on?

[brave lily]

yes, same pc.

[final current]

Got it. And the game client you created the world on is the Steam version of the game or Microsoft Store?

[brave lily]

steam version i assume. I launched the game from steam, as well as the dedicated valheim server from steam too

[final current]

OK, I suspect this is the cause of the issues. Give me a few minutes as I gotta do a work thing

[brave lily]

i truly appreciate it man! i got all day, thank you so much

[final current]

It's unusual to run the game client on the same PC as the Dedicated Server. It's not impossible to do, but does come with a couple complications. The main complication is that the Steam version of game client:

• defaults to syncing its worlds with Steam Cloud
• uses the same directory as Dedicated Server for non-synced/local-only worlds
  Those wouldn't be an issue except that the Dedicated Server is not aware of your Steam user, or Steam Cloud syncing at all.

You likely now have a situation where you have cloud-synced versions of the world you manually created as well as the ones the dedicated server generated (when it didn't find the cloud-synced version).

If your manually created world had any buildings/changes you want to keep then you'll want to do an inventory and see if you can find a copy of that version…

[brave lily]

So it might just be better off for us to join another server vs me trying to run one

[final current]

We can get this working most likely. If you want to locate a the world you manually worked on, take an inventory of
%SystemDrive%\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<steam user ID>\892970\remote\worlds
and
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds
And see if either has a copy of your .fwl and .db with a modified date close to the one you want as well as a good sized .db for the amount of changes you've made.

If located, back those two files up somewhere.

Then assuming both the game client and dedicated server are currently exited, you may also wish to move the recently-generated blank world from
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local to somewhere else so it is no longer interfering with your game client's Steam-synced version of the world.

If you found and backed up the good version backed up, let me know.

[blazing cloud]

Hey i need somehelp with my Gportal Server

[final current]

I'd go ahead and ask your question. If it's Gportal-specific, you'd likely want to talk with their Support dept.

[final current]

Just checking in, making sure you saw this step: #dedicated-server message

[brave lily]

I saw it. Thanks for the help Justin! Top tier guy 💪

[final current]

Once you have the world files you want, I highly recommend creating a new directory somewhere to use for your server data. You can put it anywhere you have access. You'd then create an inner worlds_local subdirectory of this new directory and put the good versions of your .fwl and .db file into <newly created dir>\worlds_local

You'd then modify your start_headless_server.bat to add the -savedir <newly created dir> argument to valheim_server … parameters.

Now your server will be working with a different directory than the game client and you can more safely use either or both at the same time. You'll just need to connect to your local server to play on this copy of the world.

I also recommend making a copy of this start_headless_server.bat with a different file name. That way, it can survive updates from Steam. You can find more information about that and the -savedir argument in the Valheim_Dedicated_Server_Manual.pdf that installed with the server.

[fierce light]

Hello people, could anybody suggest a decent server hosting provider for US East? Secondly is Valhost.net still a legit hosting service? Thanks!

[proven niche]

We can't make recommendations for game hosting providers. For one thing we just don't have that information reliably. For another, the best provider is mostly a personal thing depending on your preferences and circumstances. I suggest that you search for on-line reviews to see which one(s) may be appropriate for you and your location.

[reef marsh]

@fierce light some good/proven variants: Gportal, Nitrado, Dathost.

[uncut peak]

Quick question: How do you disable crossplay for a dedicated server after you've already set the server up? Is there something specific that you need to type into the command console?

[covert jewel]

Remove the option from the start up parameter set 🤷‍♂️

[uncut peak]

How do I do that? Sorry if it's obvious but I don't get it

[proven niche]

Use Notepad to edit the start_headless_server.bat file in the dedicated server's folder. Just remove the -crossplay option.

[uncut peak]

Thank you!

[proven niche]

And thank you, too. You've started off my day with an opportunity to help someone with a pretty easy problem. I like those best. 🍻 😁

[wheat heath]

@vernal spire I use Gportal its maybe not the best but it works and is relatively easy and not too expensive

[knotty oracle]

#1024264966712340510 is probably a better place for that. This channel is for troubleshooting servers.

[tulip forge]

why does the linux start script use the appid for the base game (892970) instead of the appid for the server (896660)?

!/bin/bash
export templdpath=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./linux64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export SteamAppId=892970
echo "Starting server PRESS CTRL-C to exit"
./valheim_server.x86_64 -name "<server-name>" -port <port> -world "Dedicated" -password "<password>" -crossplay
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$templdpath

also, starting my dedicated server hangs seemingly forever on

Unloading 2 unused Assets to reduce memory usage. Loaded Objects now: 200314.
Total: 130.075075 ms (FindLiveObjects: 13.406312 ms CreateObjectMapping: 19.684635 ms MarkObjects: 96.076915 ms  DeleteObjects: 0.906142 ms)

the server appears to be trying to call graphics commands, despite having "-nographics" in the shell script. is this a known issue intended to be fixed?

[knotty oracle]

It's a known issue, but one that can be safely ignored as, of course, you don't need graphics.

[tulip forge]

gotcha. and the hanging on unloading assets? i found a few posts online saying others have encountered it or its been solved or its still a problem, but theyre over 2 years old

[knotty oracle]

Hm dunno about that one. Sorry, my server knowledge is quite limited.

[tulip forge]

server is not listing when i try to connect, but the console is active (though the only new lines are:)

02/07/2025 13:18:48:  Connections 0 ZDOS:15053  sent:0 recv:0
02/07/2025 13:28:48:  Connections 0 ZDOS:15053  sent:0 recv:0

new lines:

Am I Host? True
02/07/2025 13:38:37: Available space to current user: 43409522688. Saving is blocked if below: 6060006 bytes. Warnings are given if below: 12120012
02/07/2025 13:38:37: Sending message to save player profiles
02/07/2025 13:38:37: PrepareSave: clone done in 25ms
02/07/2025 13:38:37: PrepareSave: ZDOExtraData.PrepareSave done in 53 ms
02/07/2025 13:38:37: World save writing starting
02/07/2025 13:38:37: World save writing started
02/07/2025 13:38:37: Saved 15053 ZDOs
02/07/2025 13:38:37: World save writing finishing
02/07/2025 13:38:37: World save writing finished
02/07/2025 13:38:37: World saved ( 207.073ms )
02/07/2025 13:38:37: Considering autobackup. World time: 1788.42, short time: 7200, long time: 43200, backup count: 4
02/07/2025 13:38:37: No autobackup needed yet...
Am I Host? True
02/07/2025 13:38:49:  Connections 0 ZDOS:15053  sent:0 recv:0

[final current]

The SteamAppId is used to connect to Steamworks Matchmaking APIs used to populate the Community tab when using -public without Crossplay and used to establish player identities as they connect (for the sake of kick/ban/admin listings). Because both the lobbies and player IDs work hand-in-hand with the client, the parent/client app ID is used instead of the server.

All of those recurring lines you've shown re "Connections", world saves, and asset unloads are all normal and expected and indicate nothing wrong. I suspect your server is working. Let us know how you're trying to connect to it.

[tulip forge]

the issue was i had assumed the inverse of -crossplay was simply nothing, when in reality to turn crossplay off it was -crossplay 0

[knotty oracle]

The inverse of crossplay IS nothing. -crossplay 0 will just be read as -crossplay.

[uncut peak]

Hey all, wondering if anyone can help me with a connection issue. Ever since the Bog Witch update, my brother and I have been unable to access the dedicated server that he set up on his PC with Windows 10. Every time he boots it up and we try to log on, it'll send us back to the main screen with a “Failed to connect” message. It won’t even get to the point where it allows us to input the password.

I asked about this a couple of months ago before we took a break from the game, and have since tried some of the advice we got back then. Disabling crossplay did nothing and checking the console didn’t seem to show anything out of the ordinary (though neither of us are particularly good at figuring that stuff out). We’ve also tried all the standard tricks like restarting the computer, reinstalling the game, etc. Neither of us are using any mods.

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening and how to fix it?

[plucky hemlock]

Sorry guys, it seems like I'm also having the crossplay issue. My girlfriend and I have been disconnected from my dedicated server constantly. I read online that crossplay may be responsible, but when I remove it, the server doesn't finish booting up, and we aren't able to join. I tried deleting the dedicated server folder, reinstalling and reuploading the world files, and even changing the port forwarding, but nothing worked except for adding "-crossplay" back to the bat file. When crossplay is on, no one else is having this issue disconnecting from my server, and it seems like the issue is local with my girlfriend and I. I have no idea what to do except leave it on, but the server is completely unplayable for me and my girlfriend if I do that.

[proven niche]

If you don't need -crossplay to support Xbox or gamepass users, remove it and forward the server's port and one port higher in your home router using UDP protocol. The default ports would be 2456 and 2457.

Then, have players not on your home LAN join using your WAN IP address and server port number. And players on your home LAN would use the server's internal IP address and port number.

Without crossplay you won't have a Join Code.

[final current]

How are you two connecting to the server from your game/clients? And are you both on the same LAN or is one of you in a different house?

[final current]

When you say the server doesn't finish booting up, is it exiting itself? Can you share the server log output?

[mild scarab]

if im downloading the tool from steam dirrectly to my machine do i need to install steamCMD

[final current]

You won't need to install SteamCMD. SteamCMD is just a command line version of the Steam app with server operators in mind. If you have a GPU+monitor or VNC-like solution for working in your server operating system, using the GUI Steam app is fine.

There are a couple folks in here who run servers from desktop PCs in that way who may be able to help if you run into issues.

[mild scarab]

for port forwarding it needs to be tcp or udp everywhere?

[final current]

UDP for the 2 ports is all that's needed

[mild scarab]

oki im watching troublechutes video for server setup and for inbound he did tcp for 2456-2458 and i knew it seemed odd

[final current]

yep, you got it

[mild scarab]

so it is udp its not my first time asking for help here and knew it was off

[mild scarab]

if i havnt said it before i know youve helped me before and i appriciate that

[final current]

While you're setting up forwarding rules, I recommend setting up an IP address reservation for your ethernet adapter in your router's DHCP settings. It will help keep your forwarding rule stable and make it easier to connect over your LAN to your own server.

[heavy field]

hey guys, i have a dedicated server and i cant use portals while im in a raid, is there a devcommand to enable portals?

[proven niche]

What raid blocks portals? Or, is it because you accidently picked up a piece of metal scrap during the raid?

[heavy field]

i meant bosses, sry, not raids ^^" but recopied the world filed to the local folder, changed the settings, and then copied back, so issue fixed!

[uncut peak]

We're on different LAN since we live in different areas. My brother activates the server from outside the game by starting up the console, then we both join Steam and connect to the server through the Join Game (Select Server) screen.

[plucky hemlock]

I set up port forwarding when I started the dedicated server. Also I tried deleting the server, I changed the port one up and then restarted it without cross play. It seemed to start up but no one was able to join it with the ip we used before. We used the new port but that didn’t make a difference.

[proven niche]

The server has to use a port pair. The ports have to be the assigned port (in the .bat file) and one port up from that (the port +1).

They have to be forwarded in your home router to the server's internal IP address (which can change now and then, check your router for the correct address). And both ports need to be forwarded with the IPv4 UDP protocol.

Players on the same LAN as the server use it's internal address:port and players external to the LAN use your WAN address:port. (if the server is on your game PC, then you have to use localhost:port.)

[plucky hemlock]

I did the port forwarding like that from the start, so all i did was went up +1 both on the bat file and in the router settings. The ip address was set up correctly too. As soon as I turned crossplay on (added the -crossplay), the server started working again but the constant disconnecting for me was still present.

[proven niche]

I don't think anyone is going to be able to 'fix' crossplay for you. That's just the way it is and it's not going to change.

And, you haven't given me clear enough info about your attempts to use the server without crossplay other than 'I turned crossplay on and the server started working again'.

I'm pretty sure the server was working either way and you just couldn't connect to it but you don't even say how you tried.

So it's hard for me to know how to help you with that. Maybe someone else can figure it out for you. Sorry.

[plucky hemlock]

Ok so when I removed crossplay (deleting the -crossplay in the bat file), I would then start the server. It would boot up normally except without the join code text like when crossplay is enabled. No one was able to join the server at this point. I tried changing the port 2457 instead of 2456. I changed the port in the port forwarding section in my router settings as well. I used my ipv4 address and port that I forwarded, which is also how I joined my server when crossplay was enabled. Sorry if I was unclear before.

[plucky hemlock]

Ok so I wasn't using the LOCAL ipv4 address. I was able to join using the address starting with "192." However, now my friends are unable to connect even though they can see the server in the menu. Does this have to do with the WAN address thing @proven niche mentioned?

[wide cipher]

you can't use a local IP with crossplay

Crossplay goes from your PC -> your router -> your ISP -> crossplay servers -> server ID found -> server host ISP -> router -> server

[plucky hemlock]

So how would someone join my pc if crossplay is disabled?

[proven niche]

By using the EXTERNAL IP address your ISP gave you plus the port.

[plucky hemlock]

Ok so I did that, and it isn’t letting my friends join.

[final current]

Two things to check in your router admin portal, @plucky hemlock. One is to make sure your port forwarding rule(s) are forwarding UDP specifically, and that it's forwarding to your LAN IP and that your LAN IP hasn't changed.

You will also want to compare the WAN IPv4 the router reports it has with the one you see on a page like https://www.whatismyip.com/ if they differ, let us know… it could be a CGNAT situation.

[plucky hemlock]

Ok I’ll check my router settings again. Is the WAN IP displayed in the router settings as well? The ip I joined with is what I’m assuming is the local ip which I got from ipconfig.

[final current]

Yea, local IP is what I'm calling LAN IP here and it would have been one you'd see with ipconfig or ifconfig. And yes, there should be a WAN IP address shown somewhere in the router's admin pages, status/monitoring page, or a specific WAN page in there. It will be the one assigned to the router by the ISP. It's useful to compare with what the Internet thinks your external IP address is.

If you tell us your router model, we might be able to help find it

[plucky hemlock]

I'm not able to find the WAN IP in any of the settings, just the LAN IP

[proven niche]

Go here to get it. https://whatismyipaddress.com/

[plucky hemlock]

Yeah I have that but he wants me to see if it matches with what my isp is giving my network

[proven niche]

That website checks your WAN (external) IP address and gives it to you accurately. As it exists right now.

[plucky hemlock]

ok well I'm using that address and port I forwarded already but my friend is unable to join

[final current]

Right, just wanting to make sure it's not a CGNAT situation. What model router if you don't mind me asking?

[plucky hemlock]

linksys

[proven niche]

The other possibility, besides CGNAT, is that the home router port forwarding hasn't been set correctly yet.

Maybe not the correct two ports being used by the server?

Maybe not the UDP protocol?

Maybe not the correct internal IP address for the server's PC?

[plucky hemlock]

I set the port forwarding to udp only instead of both. My friend was still unable to join. The ip address in the port forwarding page is also the same one as my server and the same address I am using to join, which is working.

should I use another port other than 2457?

[proven niche]

Yes. You need to forward both ports. 2456 and 2457 are the defaults.

Or maybe even being blocked by a Firewall or VPN on the server's PC?

[plucky hemlock]

I turned off all firewalls

but i'll add the other port

[final current]

Here's how to find the router's own WAN IP:
https://support.linksys.com/kb/article/305-en/ these are in the context of Linksys Cloud, but a similar taxonomy is probably in the local router webapp

[plucky hemlock]

I set the port to be 2457 in the .bat file though

[proven niche]

Then, forward 2457 and 2458.

[plucky hemlock]

I thought that was the LAN ip

thats what I'm already using. My friend was unable to use that one.

[final current]

In their screenshot, it's a LAN IP technically, but Linksys is using that as a placeholder

[plucky hemlock]

its also completely different from whatsmyip is showing

oh

[final current]

Looks like it's under Troubleshooting / Diagnostics. Does it start with 100… in yours?

[plucky hemlock]

oh yeah

its very different from whatsmyip

starts with 100

[final current]

Then unfortunately your ISP is using CGNAT for your connection. Your router's WAN is just another LAN at your ISP, which has the Internet as its WAN.

[plucky hemlock]

so what can I do to fix it?

ok I looked it up. looks like a pain. this sucks

[final current]

If your ISP offers an opt-in for a static IP address or a paid upgrade to not use CGNAT, you should opt for it.

You could continue to use Crossplay, but you've seen some of the obvious issues. It also has its own problems with CGNAT even beyond the unpredictability of its relays. Using Crossplay in this situation, I recommend using a non-standard port for the server as your real Internet IP address is shared amongst hundreds or thousands other customers and Microsoft uses your Internet IP + port as a unique identifier. I also recommend giving other players the Join Code instead of your Internet IP for connection.

The Valheim client has a few bugs with IPv6. Once those are fixed, that would be another option the other players to use for connecting to a non-Crossplay server in this situation. Unfortunately, there's not an ETA on that yet. That's assuming your ISP is giving you an IPv6 range in the first place.

Outside of those options, your server won't be the best candidate for hosting game servers, unfortunately.

[plucky hemlock]

would the static ip address be in the static routing section?

How would I know if my isp offers a static ip?

[final current]

Nah, the Static Routing section is usually for setting up routes between LANs in your own home. Static IP would be an option with your ISP and if they don't have some kind of admin portal you can log into online, you might have to contact their Support dept for such a thing. They may not offer it.
If they enable it, you might have to adjust another section of the router config, usually where you specify your ISP uses DHCP (not to be confused with the DHCP server the router hosts for your LAN).

[plucky hemlock]

I found a setting that lets me choose between a static and dynamic system. It also shows the same public ip address under the troubleshooting page. The setting is in the security section, but I don't see DHCP.

[final current]

Static vs Dynamic choice in your ISP's admin pages or your router's?

[plucky hemlock]

routers

oh I found it

[final current]

OK, cool. I wouldn't mess with the router setting for that without confirming with your ISP's documentation or on advice from their Support dept. In most cases these days, dynamic assignment from your ISP is what you want. They can theoretically even use that to assign you a static IP if they offer it.

[plucky hemlock]

found "select static ip" in connectivity>internet settings

the current setting is automatic configuration DHCP

[final current]

Cool, that's likely the one you want.

[plucky hemlock]

when I select static, it asks for the address, gateway, subnet mask, various DNS inputs

[final current]

Right, those would come from your ISP if applicable.

[plucky hemlock]

oh so I would need to call support

[final current]

Right, but the real question for their support department is if they offer a dedicated Internet IP address. Typically, CGNAT ISPs might only offer it with their "Static IP" option package.

This Connectivity / Internet Settings page you're looking at is just configuring how your router discovers its own IPv4 address from the ISP. Even if you buy your ISP's Static IP option if they offer it, they might still assign that IP to your router over DHCP, in which case you wouldn't change a thing on that page. The change would be on your ISP's side.

The ISP might alternatively tell you that you need to configure the static IP on your router, in which case you would actually put in the details they give you here.

You could do some searching around for other customers of your same ISP to see if any of them have found options for avoiding CGNAT.

[plucky hemlock]

Alright so I just talked to support and they need to configure the static ip for me then they will send me the information sometime within 1-2 business days.

Looks like my isp offers it

[final current]

Neat. There's hope for you hosting Valheim yet. 🙂

[plucky hemlock]

I have really good internet too but my servers have always been laggy, do you think the cgnat is responsible?

[final current]

• For outbound direct connectivity to other servers, CGNAT could add a tiny bit of latency but is rarely enough to be noticeable lag.
• For inbound, direct connectivity from the Internet is impossible in CGNAT as you found.
• Crossplay without CGNAT can add lag and reliability issues for all legs, whether player or server. We see it plenty in here.
• Crossplay with CGNAT has those same issues but adds more issues for a server hosted behind CGNAT. This is mostly to do with you having the same <Internet IPv4 address>:2456 identifier as any of your ISP customer neighbors trying to host a Crossplay Valheim server. I'm talking about the IP address you saw on whatismyip.com.

[wheat anvil]

can i join anyones game?

[proven niche]

Use the #1024264966712340510 channel for that. This channel is for dedicated server help.

[dapper shard]

Hello.
Starting up a paid dedicated server and wondering if there is any other option for turning fire hazards on, than cmd "setkey fire"? And will it reset everytime the server is empty or restarted?

[proven niche]

You only need to do the "setkey fire" command once and it will stay until you remove it with a "removekey fire" command.

[dapper shard]

Oh, nice! Thank you for a quick response!

[uncut peak]

#dedicated-server message
Reposting my question from 2 days ago in case anyone can help me

[proven niche]

Ok, to review... Your brother has set up a dedicated server along side his Valheim game both running on the same PC at his house. You are trying to join the server from your house. And both of you get the "Failed to Conect" error. And the server is not using crossplay.

Your brother will need to have forwarded his server's internal IP address in his home router using IPv4 and the UDP protocol. Then he should be able to connect by using the "localhost:nnnn" address. And he should temporarily turn off his Firewall and any VPN he may be using as a test.

And you should try to connect using your brother's EXTERNAL IPv4 address and the server's port number.

So... Is your brother trying to connect using the localhost and port number address? And when he goes to the geekstrom.de/valheim/check website, does it 'find' the server ok or not?

[young island]

Anyone able to help me? Just rented a server and now my game won't join any server, says incompatible game version?

Same error for both me and my friend, was working perfectly fine 20 minutes ago when I was hosting server

[proven niche]

Just renting a server won't change the version of your game. Something else has happened during that 20 minutes that you're missing.

You could try removing your game and reinstalling it.

[young island]

I sorted it, I had a mod enabled without installing it

[uncut peak]

Thanks for the help! I tried using that website and it could not find the server even when it was supposedly running. Not 100% sure what that means but I think it means something's wrong on my brother's end. He's going to try your advice on the IP address when he gets some spare time.

Whoops, meant this as a reply to @proven niche

[wide oyster]

is anyone else having trouble getting the dedicated linux valheim server to run?

[proven niche]

Generally only when you either don't follow the instructions about adding missing libraries or watching for error messages at server startup or having the server actually up and running just fine but you're trying to connect the wrong way. Lots of folks having those kind of dedicated Linux server problems.

[wide oyster]

It was running fine for years, I had to rebuild the vm and now it doesnt' work, I'm not getting any obvious errors, it just sorts of stalls on building the threads then does a memory dump

tried a reinstall, same business

doesn't even get to listening to ports

[proven niche]

I forgot to mention VMs and containers. Those cause folks trouble sometimes, too. Not to mention home router port forwarding and CGNAT ISP problems, too. It's a jungle out there...

Oh, and is your new password at least 5 chars long and not contain the world name? That crops up occasionally, too.

[wide oyster]

I've worked with all that before, the service getting hung up before any of that comes into play

[proven niche]

Hmmm... Hung services are above my pay grade. Maybe @final current can help you with that when he gets a chance. I know he's busy but he'll drop in now and then.

[wide oyster]

have there been any recent changes to either supporting libraries or arguments for running headless?

[proven niche]

Nope.

[wide oyster]

I tested it on ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04, and a non-vm all have the same issue, sometime since january

[final current]

I'd say to attach the full log if you can, @wide oyster. You can redact IP addresses or anything else sensitive if you want.

[wide oyster]

I'll get a dump of the logs

[proven niche]

Speaking of dumps, I'm going to have one of my own and a cup of warm milk and hit the sack. Good luck to you both! 🙏

[final current]

Have a good night, @proven niche!

[covert jewel]

No issue running LGSM dedi via Docker. I don't have the traffic pounding like others I suspect; but seems pretty stable.

I don't know if viable/possible, but possible MOD issue(s)??

[wide oyster]

No mods, fresh download... Very frustrating

[final current]

Got a log output to attach yet?

[proven niche]

So, no progress at all overnight? I didn't miss out on anything?

I wonder what distro he's using. And what the Linux host itself is running on? Like maybe an Oracle Free Tier VPS or a Raspberry Pi, maybe?

I wonder should we refer it all to the #linux guys? They usually like a good challenge down there.

Assuming there's still someone awake down there. It's not the most active channel lately. Although, that might actually be the 'good' news. Come to think of it.

[final current]

You didn't miss anything. We don't have much info to go on without log output. Bonus for any information about how it's being started.

[plucky hemlock]

@final current So my isp said they changed my internet to static. My friend is still unable to join the server. Is there anything I need to do on my end that my isp hasn't changed?

[proven niche]

Did you forward BOTH server ports in your home router?

[final current]

Have you restarted the router? Is the router-reported WAN IPv4 address now matching your Internet/external IP address on sites like https://www.whatismyip.com/ ?

[plucky hemlock]

No I only forwarded port 2457 which matches the .bat file script. Set to UDP protocol.

[plucky hemlock]

I didn't restart the router, they told me to unplug the ethernet and plug it back in.

[proven niche]

You need to forward both 2457 and 2458

[plucky hemlock]

I'll try that, cause the ips don't match still.

[final current]

I would go back to 2456, the default now, just so the other players don't have to enter one. Then forward 2456 and 2457.

[plucky hemlock]

oh ok

So I just add the other port the same way I added the first one?

UDP only?

[final current]

UDP only is fine, yea. 2456 and 2457 (server port + 1)

[plucky hemlock]

Does it need to be in the startup script as well?

[final current]

But yes, if your router-reported WAN IPv4 doesn't yet match your Internet IPv4, your friend won't be able to connect.

[plucky hemlock]

-port 2457?

[proven niche]

-port 2456

[plucky hemlock]

yeah I know that, I'm wondering if the other port needs to be added as well

[final current]

Nope, it's added automatically on the Valheim side. Still both need to be forwarded.

[plucky hemlock]

Ok so only -port 2456 in the script, and both ports need to be forwarded, correct?

[final current]

you got it

[plucky hemlock]

ok gonna restart router

[proven niche]

Some routers also need you to click on the 'Save' button before you restart. You need to make sure your router is still forwarding the ports after restarting it.

[final current]

Hopefully you don't have a 100… IPv4 WAN address when it starts back up.

[proven niche]

If your ISP gives you a 'static' address, could that static address still be CGNATed?

[plucky hemlock]

Uhm yeah its still 100...

[final current]

Is there a separate modem? If so, restart it too

[proven niche]

@final current, am I right in thinking that they might give you two ports on the ISP router forwarded with UDP to your home router? Maybe two unlikely to be used ports like say 34123 and 34124 or something like that? Then you could also forward the same ports on your home router? Is that just crazy?

[plucky hemlock]

just a router

my pc is plugged into the router if that makes a difference

just moved to a direct wall connection

[final current]

I doubt they'd offer it. Everything's kind of assumed to be dynamic and automatic with CGNAT, and the carrier's NAT doesn't have a protocol like UPnP or NAT-PMP exposed at the customer's level for adjusting anything like that. With UDP being connectionless, you can kind of trick an open port with an outbound connection, then use the outbound port as your inbound. You might even be able to get it to work with the two NATs, but Valheim isn't really aware of those hole-punching tricks as far as I know

[final current]

Who's the ISP? You can DM me if you'd prefer to keep it private.

[proven niche]

Yeah, I was just wishful thinking. 🤷‍♂️

[wide oyster]

I do!

I've tested and had the same results on three differnt hosts, two proxmox-lxc containers running ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04 and my desktop (not a vm) running ubuntu 24.04

[final current]

Thanks. Can you verify the owner of ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local and that it's under the home directory of the same user the server is started as and that it is a directory and not a file? And the directory permissions on it. The user will need x, w, and r access.

[wide oyster]

clever... that was a link that got broken in the migration... testing again 🙂

one of the things I was cleaning up... had things spread out poorly

[final current]

@plucky hemlock, does the page with the WAN IPv4 address also have a release/renew button set?

Alternatively, in connectivity/internet settings near the Automatic part.

[plucky hemlock]

yes

[final current]

Try a release followed by a renew.

[plucky hemlock]

uhh its the same

[final current]

😦 did they take down your router's MAC address or some other identifier when you signed up for the static IP address?

[wide oyster]

that was the broken bit... thanks for being my clue bird 🙂

[final current]

Sure thing, glad it's working!

[plucky hemlock]

Nope they said they just "switched" to an open NAT type

I plugged my pc into the wall directly though so I don't know if the router makes a difference for that.

[final current]

I am sorry to say that there is no evidence they gave you a static Internet IPv4 address. They may have enabled Open NAT, but it's still a carrier-grade open NAT if they're only assigning you a 100… address. :/

If the opened it, it will make it easy for apps that use UDP hole-punching to make direct connections, especially videoconferencing and some games. Valheim doesn't do hole-punching though.

[plucky hemlock]

so what should I ask them when they call me this week?

[final current]

It might be important to figure out what they actually offered you last time. If it was just "open NAT", that's not enough. You want an upgrade/option to avoid CGNAT, and usually that option is a "static IP" upgrade. If they don't have such an option for a residential account, it might require a business account. If they are piggybacking off of another ISP like Starlink, then they likely have no choice of their own and no such option to pass on to you.

[plucky hemlock]

Ok I'll ask

[fervent violet]

Hey guys. Struggling with something. What would be the start parameters for setting SkillGainRate permanently so that it persists through reboots? I got other world modifiers in that are working as expected, just not setting keys for some reason. I am able to modify it in-game, but when I restart the server the config is lost. Any ideas on how to make it persistent?

Oh just to mention, I am running in Ubuntu using LGSM

I have this added to my launch params;

-modifier raids more -modifier combat easy -modifier resources muchmore -modifier deathpenalty veryeasy -setkey SkillGainRate 1000 -modifier portals casual

The modifiers all work. Just not the setkey one

[proven niche]

You may be trying to set the SkillGainRate too high with 1000. It may be ignoring anything that high.

Try a test with 300 instead and, if that works, try a little higher, etc., etc. until you find the limit.

[radiant yacht]

Hey all, I'm having an issue setting up my dedicated server. I tried following along with the included guide, but none of my modifications are sticking. The server name in game is still "my server," the password is still "secret," etc. Also, unrelated, after launching it looks like port 2456 is still closed on my IP?

[radiant yacht]

nvm it's crashing now

[proven niche]

Are you ok now? It's hard to tell whether you've still got a problem or just don't know where the delete button is.

[radiant yacht]

Honestly idk. I don't know if the issue is on me, or my god-forsaken Spectrum router. Does the headless_server.bat config look okay? If so I guess I'll throw my router down some stairs and get a new one later

[proven niche]

Well, your password needs to be at least 5 chars long and not include your world name. So, there's that.

And, how are you starting the server? By running the start_headless_server.bat file? Or executing a StmCMD command? Hopefully the .bat file directly...

[final current]

Your config looked ok to me, but note that when you use crossplay like you are, you don't get a local bind on 2456. You instead get an outbound connection from the server to a relay server. Your external/Internet IP address and port are only used as an identifier for others to find the same relay, similar to the Join Code you get. Your loopback and LAN IP addresses won't be connectible and any inbound port forwarding on your router won't be used.

As for the crashing, if you're still seeing that, feel free to post us the log. You can copy the console output to a text file and attach it here or add the -logFile <path> argument when you start it next.

[proven niche]

As for your 'god-forsaken Spectrum router', stick to just cursing at it don't toss it down the stairs. If you're using crossplay, then the router doesn't need to forward any ports at all. And, if it does, it doesn't matter, anyway.

It got awfully quiet in here... I hope everyone is ok. Including the poor router. 😟

[tardy vault]

Yo

[proven niche]

https://tenor.com/view/yo-whats-up-josh-the-six-whats-going-on-whats-new-gif-24913538

[tardy vault]

Why can I type only one message every once in a while...?

[final current]

It's an automatic control mechanism to help prevent spamming or flooding.

[proven niche]

You know what's even worse in here? Trying to post a link to another discord server. TIMEOUT! for 10 minutes. 😡

[tardy vault]

Bleh

[proven niche]

Exactly! But we do get to post GIFs. So, there's that...

https://tenor.com/view/wiking-viking-słowianin-słowianie-slowianie-gif-22099705

[tardy vault]

Well anyone care to join my newb server and help me out a bit?

[proven niche]

What kind of help did you have in mind?

[tardy vault]

Idk just starting out with the basics. Right now I'm just trying to get a normal house built lol

[proven niche]

That's one of the best parts of the game. You can check over in the #1024264966712340510 channel to see if there's another nooby or two to come join you. Backup your server first, though. Some of them have no manners at all.

[tardy vault]

Lol ok

[tardy vault]

Any servers I can join?

[proven niche]

Any servers to join would be in the #1024264966712340510 channel, too.

[fervent violet]

Dont think this is the issue. I am able to set it to 1000 manually in the server via in-game commands. I also tried many varieties of the parameter in the start line but still not working. Not sure how to set this key persistently

[proven niche]

I've never experienced a world key resetting itself on server start up. Is it possible that you have one of your mods loading in that's causing it?

[fervent violet]

Got no mods installed. Its all vanilla. After setting the key in-game, it works until the server reboot then it resets back to normal. That is why I am trying to set the key on start

[proven niche]

And you've tried removing it from the server .bat start up file as an option there to make sure that's not resetting it either? Or even remove all the modifiers there as a test?

[fervent violet]

I have not tried removing all modifiers to see if it stays on reboot. Will give that a go, but if any of the other modifiers stop working I would need to set them back

[proven niche]

Or you could just do all the modification using setkey console commands instead, if they were'n't getting reset you'd only need to do that once and let the server save the settings in it's .fwl file.

[fervent violet]

Ok that makes sense. Let my try that and see if I can get everything to remain set

[proven niche]

Good luck with it in any event. 🙏 🍻

[final current]

The parameters you gave worked for me. Got the key and the modifiers set in the world, at least when looking at listkeys. I'd say to paste your whole server start command line if you're still running into issues. You can obfuscate the pasword.

Or your vhserver config's full startparameters

[pliant folio]

hey folks, I know this has been answered a billion times already probably so sorry for rehashing it, but I'm hoping y'all can help. I'm having trouble connecting to a hosted dedicated server specifically when crossplay is enabled. Crossplay can't be turned off, because we have players on XBox, and I seem to be the only one of about ~16 regulars who has this issue. So far I've tried:

• turning it off and back on again (reset my router, uninstalled/reinstalled the game, verified files, removed all mods from both my pc and the server)
• disabling anything that might be interfering with networking (firewall, VPN, MSI etc software)
• trying from a different computer
• trying both wired and wireless connection
• updating networking drivers
• flushing DNS cache
• running as admin

Again, it's clearly something on my end but I'm at a loss as to what. I can connect to the server but immediately get a disconnection warning and then disconnect fully within a minute, with a Playfab error code of 4098. I've tested it with different server hosts and had the same issue across them all, but connecting a friend's game with crossplay enabled is just fine. Any ideas?

[proven niche]

Check your log files to see if there's anything in there around the time you get disconnected that might help to explain it.

[pliant folio]

I'm assuming a Playfab network error code 4098 is not ideal

[proven niche]

That error with the playfab network means "The operation was called with an invalid handle." There doesn't appear to be any further explanation for it.

It has happened several times in here but I've not seen a correction or 'fix' for it. It does look like it goes away by itself after a while but no idea why.

[pliant folio]

alas, it's been an issue for several months now 😔 thanks anyway!

[proven niche]

It appears you've already delt with all the usual causes for conection issues. Have you tried changing the VPN to a different location that tried connecting from there?

[pliant folio]

I have, but not for some time; I could try again

[fervent violet]

My F2 with no keys when running 'listkeys'. Here is the startparam and modifiers;

worldmodifiers="-modifier raids more -modifier combat easy -modifier resources muchmore -modifier deathpenalty veryeasy -setkey SkillGainRate 1000 -modifier portals casual"

startparameters="-name '${servername}' -password ${serverpassword} -port ${port} -world ${worldname} -public ${public} -savedir '${savedir}' -saveinterval ${saveinterval} -backups ${backups} -backupshort ${backupshort} -backuplong ${backuplong}${logFile:+ -logFile '${logFile}'}${crossplay:+ -crossplay}${worldmodifiers:+ ${worldmodifiers}}"

As mentioned, the modifiers all work as intended. The setkey param is the only one that is not taking.

[fervent violet]

Actually, no keys show up with 'listkeys' even with the keys manually set in-game

[fervent violet]

Here is the full executed start parameters as per ./vhserver details

./valheim_server.x86_64 -name 'REDACTED' -password REDACTED -port 2444 -world vhserver -public 1 -savedir '/home/vhserver/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim' -saveinterval 1800 -backups 4 -backupshort 7200 -backuplong 43200 -crossplay -instanceid 1 -modifier raids more -modifier combat easy -modifier resources muchmore -modifier deathpenalty veryeasy -setkey SkillGainRate 1000 -modifier portals casual

I understand that the settings are all saved to the .fwl after the first launch, so they should stay the same after a reboot too even with no params. But alas, the key is reset on each boot

[final current]

Params look OK. I don't think SkillGainRate shows up in the F2 dialog when connected to a dedicated server. And listkeys may not work without a mod like Server devcommands used by an admin.

[fervent violet]

I ran devcommands in-game console before the listkeys command.

Not sure what is happening here

[final current]

Do you have Server devcommands mod installed in a BepInEx-wrapped game session? Otherwise, I don't think the local listkeys command uses RPC to get it from the server. I could be wrong.

[fervent violet]

No I dont have any mods installed. That would explain the lack of keys. Does not however explain why I cant get the darned key to set on launch though

[final current]

I think what I'm saying is: are you sure it isn't set on launch? I think it could be working but is just not obvious.

[fervent violet]

Yeah I am pretty sure. Setting it in-game after launch is a huge difference to what it is like before setting it manually.

I have even tried setting it to something ubsurd like 1000000000000 to test and it didnt do anything

[knotty oracle]

I doubt that number would achieve anything.

[fervent violet]

What I am trying to say is that no number does anything at this point unless it is set in-game

[final current]

I'll try to do a local setkey vs server -setkey comparison looking at the resulting FWL ZPackage later today if I get time, will be several hours before I can get to it though.

[fervent violet]

Thank you I really appreciate your time on this

[final current]

I was able to reproduce your issue and did some disassembly to try to figure out what the server is doing. Try -setkey 'SkillGainRate 1000' with those single quotes in the vhserver config. Other modifiers can stay.

[final current]

I considered sending a bug report to Iron Gate but I changed my mind. They'd have to try to guess whether the value argument should be applied to the -setkey sequence or was a regular positional argument, and that would be a complicated guess to make. The fact that this can be worked around with a space-delimited string is good.

Unfortunately the work around won't work in lloesche's container and probably other server deployments, but I think LinuxGSM does an unsafe eval of startparameters, allowing the single quoting to be applied downstream.

[fervent violet]

That is AWESOME news. Thank you so much for your efforts. Going to try it out with the single quotes and report back

Single quoting was applied downstream as suspected and it seems to be working this time around! Thank you kindly sir. Its a strange one for sure. I have another strange issue where port 2456 just stopped working for some reason. Had to change to a different port (2444) to get the server back online. Not sure what that is about but not too stressed about it since it works

Thank you again!

[final current]

You're very welcome! Glad you got it working. As for the port contention, I assume you checked for an existing running server process. I notice you're using Crossplay, though and that adds two possible sources of port contention:

• Microsoft's relay server hasn't realized your prior instance is no longer sending packets and it could be several minutes before it times out your server session.
• If your ISP uses CGNAT, you could be competing with one of their other customers on the same carrier LAN for hosting a Valheim server on that port.

If your other players all use the Steam version and you have networking savvy, you should consider going through the effort of making direct connectivity work instead of using Crossplay.

[fervent violet]

The crossplay feature does not bear use for me on this server. If that was the reason for the issue, I will disable it. Currently only steam connections to the server.

First, Microsoft's relay I dont think is part of the issue since it is running in Ubuntu VM under Hyper-v. I set up an external switch so the NIC of the VM connects directly to my router with its own MAC to get n IP. I did check for other services as well and none other were running with that port. Additionally, the server would fail to start if it was not able to bind to its configured port.

Second, I have a dedicated IP from my ISP and use that exclusively. No CGNAT involved. I am hosting a few other services from the same location without issue.

Direct connect works perfectly fine. Its just more convenient to have it listed. I should mention here as well that I was able to connect to the server from my local LAN without issue, but all inter-based connectivity failed. I have a hairpin-NAT configured to allow public IP traversal within my LAN so I was able to test internet connectivity easily. I was concerned that it was my router at first, but changing the port and subsequent port forwarding on my router all was working as expected again.

[final current]

When Crossplay is enabled, the local port binding and any port-forwarding are both ignored and your server makes an outbound connection to Microsoft Azure PlayFab Party. So running in an Ubuntu VM under Hyper-v would be the same as running bare metal in terms of networking impact. With Crossplay, the external IP address of your router and your listening port are just used as an identifier for players to figure out which Microsoft Azure PlayFab Party relay your server is connected to. It's basically an application-level resource locator.

[fervent violet]

I see. So the port allocation happens on the Playfab side, got locked up, and failed to release the connection in time? Based on the explanation, it seems that crossplay/playfab is not needed

For my use-case at least

[final current]

You got it. Microsoft has a registry of the external IP address+advertised port combinations that are connected to their relays and it's that registry that can be slow to realize a previously-stopped server. And yep, it sounds like you have the equipment, ISP setup, and knowledge to expose+forward the two UDP ports without using Crossplay. Just remember to give your VM either a static LAN IP address or a DHCP reservation to keep your forwarding rules stable.

By skipping Crossplay, you'll enable faster and more reliable gameplay for other players and you'll be able to connect more directly over loopback or LAN yourself without issue.

[lusty ore]

heyo, if i want to transfer my old valheim server to a new one should i set the new one up with all the mods and everything and then just transfer the world to the new server? I saw somewhere a guide for it, i don't remember where tho.

i copied the entire directory from the FTP of my old server, but it seemed like there would be too much info like the old IP address etc to just copy the whole thing over.

i would like the new server to have all the same settings, map, built stuff, etc if possible.

thx! 🙂

would i just get the server running then follow this:

oh i guess G-Portal has their own FAQ with this:

that should work then i guess heh

[proven niche]

Install the new server and then install BepInEx on it and copy the plugins, patchers and configs over to the new server. You'll need to copy the two world files (.db and .fwl) from the old location to the new one, too. Don't forget to update the start_headless_server.bat file.

[lusty ore]

oh the .bat file i didn't know about. what do i need to edit in there? it's a hosted server on G-Portal, not on a separate local machine anymore.

i have bepinx and all the mods, i need to update all of those too. the mods i had were working when i last ran the server, but im sure the game and the mods have been updated since then.

appreciate the reply, i'm gonna give it a shot here in a sec 🙂

[lusty ore]

is there a way to reset all of the boss kills on a world save or make them separate for each person who plays on that save?

[proven niche]

If you have admin status on the server and load up ServerDevcommands on the server and your game, you can use F5 console setkey commands to control the boss kill status. Also, set or reset them for players. Use the listkeys command and then set/reset the ones as you like.

[lusty ore]

oh nice i have that already installed, i wasn't aware it had that option. i think i have the setting turned on where all the people on the server learn recipes when someone else does, so i dunno what real difference the boss setting would make for new players, maybe the boss powers i guess?

thx again 🙂

[lusty ore]

where are all of the difficulty settings and stuff like resource multipliers located for a dedicated server?

i got it to load up just fine with the old world... but when i logged in i guess fire damage to bases was turned on somehow... so my house as just exploding in flames... i had turned off fire damage on the old server but i guess the new server didn't get the memo lol.

the web interface for settings from g-portal is pretty basic.

i forget if one of the mods covers basic settings, i couldn't find the fire damage one in the F1 menu anywhere. i turned it off on the server and reloaded the world, but i dunno what else was changed from how i had it setup before. O_o

[spiral timber]

Hi, I'm running a dedicated server on a Linux server using LinuxGSM and I'm trying to set the StaminaRate key and for some reason it's not working. All other keys seem to set properly (such as -setkey AllPiecesUnlocked) but for some reason -setkey StaminaRate 0 (or any other number) doesn't seem to work. Anyone got experience on using worldmodifiers on LinuxGSM vhserver?

[final current]

Funny we were just talking about this today: #dedicated-server message
Try -setkey 'StaminaRate 0' with those single-quotation marks instead.

[spiral timber]

Damn my search-fu didn't find this 😅 Thanks! I'll try this

[final current]

It is not yet documented as far as I know. It won't work with a lot of Valheim deployment architectures, but because Linux GSM does an unsafe eval of the parameters string, it happens to pass it along the way it's needed.

[proven niche]

Difficulty settings and stuff like that are nornally in your start_headless_server.bat file but with a rented server, the server hosting Co. can have them in it's menus sometimes. You'll have to look around with g-portal. Maybe you get to edit the .bat file and maybe not.

You can also try and get into the F5 console in game and set everything to default with the command "setworldpreset default".

Then when nothings on fire or exploding or anything, restore your world from the backup before the damage. Then you can redo the world modifiers later once everything settles down.

[crystal stratus]

Hey all, having some issues getting connected to my valheim server

Server details:

• Debian
• t2.large

Command :
./valheim_server.x86_64 -name "redacted" -port 2458 -world "redacted" -password "redacted" -public 1

Network:
ports 2456 - 2458 open on inbound
all ports open to outbound

i still get "Failed to connect"

ive had it set up in this manner a couple years ago

[final current]

Is it in a subnet with a public IP address, and the ports have inbound accept rules for UDP in the security group?

[crystal stratus]

ffs, set to TCP 🤦

ill switch and check

goddamn it.

i think i had the same "issue" all that time ago lol

thanks xD

[final current]

You're welcome!

[frozen zephyr]

You should also only need 2458 and 2459 open when setting it run on 2458

[restive finch]

Does anyone have some ideas or suggestions for reducing or eliminating server lag on a dedicated server? I have one through Hostari. I know its due to how the game is coded and utilizes client-side processing even when using a dedicated server. I've seen some things like increasing the server send rate but Id like to hear how others have maybe alleviated this?

[final current]

If all of your players use the Steam version of the game, a big impact can be had by disabling Crossplay which has the effect of enabling direct connectivity.

[crystal stratus]

Does crossplay currently work?

If i try and run my sever with -crosplay in the command nothing can connect, and without it only pc players can connect

current working command

./valheim_server.x86_64 -name "redacted" -port 2456 -nographics -batchmode -world "redacted" -password "redacted" -public 1

[proven niche]

With -crossplay, everyone should use the Join Code to join.

Without -crossplay, Xbox players aren't supported and can't play on the server at all.

[crystal stratus]

so, use -crossplay but insted of the domain name i have valheim.blah.co.uk for example just use the join code?

i have a domain name pointing to my server that currently works, but that wont work with -crossplay enabled ?

[crystal stratus]

i think there might be more to it than that

start it with -crossplay enabled but get this.. where do i get my Joincode?

seems a little opaque with how it's meant to work

[final current]

It should be a bit later in the log if it's blank in that initial session creation.

[crystal stratus]

where should i see it?

[final current]

If it never shows up, consider attaching the whole log, you can omit the IP address/name. Also, is this on Linux, macOS, or Windows?

[crystal stratus]

debian

[final current]

Do you have libpulse0 and libpulse-mainloop-glib0 installed?

[crystal stratus]

i do now

[proven niche]

You may want to add -logfile "..path/Server.log" to your start up .sh file.

[crystal stratus]

good idea

[final current]

I would grab libatomic1 as well if not installed, then start the server again. If it's working and you get a join code, you might even be able to get the domain to work, but it would have to be an A record or CNAME->A record leading to the exact public IP it registers to PlayFab with.

[proven niche]

The Join Code will be at the end of the .log file, assuming the server actually starts up and is running. 🙂

[crystal stratus]

thanks for the advice, ill give all that a go

libatomic1 was the missing piece maybe, I get a joincode now!

awesome, i can join as normal! will test xbox soon 🙂

[final current]

Rockin, glad it's working. Crossplay uses Azure PlayFab Party behind the scenes, and because the Party client library supports extra features like voice chat, it has a few dependencies that an average server distro or container may not have out-of-the-box (even though Valheim doesn't use all of those).

[crystal stratus]

Going to write all this down so I can terraformise it 😄

And don't tell me a module already exists, what's knowing how to do things if we can't reinvent the wheel once in a while

[final current]

If you're using systemd to launch the server, you might leave the -logFile argument off eventually as the default of logging to the console will work fine with journald and that whole toolchain.

[torpid mantle]

hey, im having trouble making myself an admin on my dedicated server. Any idea why?

this is the error i get when typing in devcommands

[daring basin]

hello, why can't I log in to the server even though it's working? (I check through https://geekstrom.de/valheim/check)

[proven niche]

Where is the server and how are you trying to log in? Does the server use crossplay?

[proven niche]

You have to be an admin on the server,

have the ServerDevcommands mod installed on the server and on your game,

and have -console added to your Steam Game Launch options.

Then F5 should open up the console where you may have to put in the "devcommands" and "debugmode" commands to get full access.

[daring basin]

i added -batchmode to the startup line and everything worked

[proven niche]

I wouldn't have guessed that was the problem but I'm glad you got it working. 😄

[daring basin]

Well, maybe not because of that. my line looks like this:
./valheim_server.x86_64 -nographics -batchmode -name "" -port 2456 -world "" -password "" -public "1"
after that, Playfab console disappeared and I was able to log in

[proven niche]

A couple of odd things there but I'm not going to argue with success. Just glad it's working for you. 🙂

[daring basin]

🙂

[winged gale]

Anyone know what this means, im hosting a server via the games "start server" feature, is this just normal things ?

[knotty oracle]

Seems pretty normal.

[winged gale]

I presume so, that its just me being the server host, just never seen it befpre, wanted to ask.

[odd pawn]

Hey, I'm running a dedicated server on my laptop. What is the best way to schedule a server save and reboot for it?

[proven niche]

Saves happen automatically. Only restart it when you have to for some reason.

[odd pawn]

The server gets laggy after like 48 hours and I would like to automate a reboot of the server. Or is there some other fix? Example chests won't open sometimes and I cannot for example pick up stuff from the ground

sry reboot is what I'm talking about 😄

[proven niche]

You should try and identify the cause of the lag. Dedicated servers don't usually get laggy after some period of time.

However, you can automate a regularly scheduled shutdown/start up cycle, if you want to. How you do that would depend on the nature of the dedicated server. What OS is it running on and is it installed with a VM or docker container, etc.

There are mods that can help you do that, if you want to go that way, too. You could search for those at thunderstore.io.

[odd pawn]

It's running directly on the installed OS win11

[proven niche]

I've never had to reboot any of my servers regularly like that with some kind of automatic reboot job.

So I don't know the details of how you should proceed with it. Sorry.

[odd pawn]

So it is not common for getting a janky server after 48hours? Maybe I will look into it then

I thought it might be a feature of valheim dedicated server 😄

[proven niche]

No, it isn't normal. But, there are many possible causes for server lag and it can be frustrating trouble shooting it. Good luck with it!

[proven niche]

For one thing, if you have crossplay turned on and don't need it to support Xbox users, turn it off and use port forwarding in your router instead. The server's instruction manual talks about how to do that.

[odd pawn]

hmm, I would need to turn it on manually?

before, I experienced the whole laptop restarting randomly while running the server but after changing some power plan settings it stabilized. I had all the sleep settings off. no messages would appear in windows events about why it was shut down...

I think it has to do with some cache/memory thing with the laptop being in screen off state

I upped the minimum processor state while being in sleep mode on battery, but the laptop is connected to cable at all times and now I don't get the random reboots of windows anymore, so weird 😄

I'm thinking about removing the whole lenovo vantage software and testing if that has a difference on the server performance

[proven niche]

I'm not familiar with Lenovo laptops but removing some bloatware sounds like it might be a good idea.

And, if the laptop is older and unused, you can consider reformatting it completely and installing one of the light weight friendlier Linux operating systems on it.

You'd be surprised how much better an older PC can run with the right Linux OS on it. And you don't really have to be a tech wizard to do that. If you might be interested in that take a look at "Linux Lite" and "PoP_OS".

[final current]

And make sure the fans have been blown out. Valheim Dedicated Server uses some CPU, even while idle.

[final current]

Are you running some mods locally besides Server devcommands? If so, they may be out of date. And have you added yourself to the server's adminlist following the manual?

[fervent violet]

Anyone know where I can get the current seed of my running world?

Seem to be having issues finding it

Ah its printseeds from F5

[glacial lantern]

Hey guys, sorry been doing a bit of scrolling and can't find the answer I'm looking for

Looking at getting a Dedicated server for Oce region, anybody got a suggestion on who to use?

[final current]

Would you be using Crossplay or Steam/direct connectivity?

We don't really recommend 3rd-party hosting sites in here. If you're using Crossplay and your players are in Oceania, you might consider hosting it yourself on an Azure instance, which will make it closely located to a Crossplay relay.
Azure regions with Crossplay relays near you might be SoutheastAsia in Singapore, AustraliaEast in New South Wales, or AustraliaSoutheast in Victoria.

[calm pumice]

I am configured as admin, I can open the console. Trying to turn cheats on, but the command imacheater doesnt do anything?

should mention, this is my own server I am running, its not a solo game.

not sure if there are different commands or something

[proven niche]

The command "iamacheater" has been changed to "devcommands".

[calm pumice]

ah, ok yes, So I enter that, and devdommands: True

was exploremap also changed?

[proven niche]

No, enter "debugmdode".

[calm pumice]

I assume you meant to type debugmode?

[proven niche]

Yeah, debugmode should be working after devcommands is true.

[calm pumice]

I dunno whats goin on lol

this is what populates when I enter debug

[proven niche]

One sec.

[calm pumice]

Seems everything I find on google is either a 4 year old article where its all outated, or 300 AI generated websites that all look identical and give the exact same incorrect info lol 😦

[knotty oracle]

If only there was a Wiki that had this kind of information.

[calm pumice]

there sure is, https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Developer_console

hense why I am here, asking questions, troubleshooting

[knotty oracle]

I know, I wrote it.

[calm pumice]

Oh

[knotty oracle]

Are you on a dedicated server or playing solo?

[calm pumice]

dedicated server, my own hardware though. all local

I am running alot of mods too, but I didnt think those would interfere with this, but maybe?

[proven niche]

Enter debugmode again. It gets to 'true' with devcommands then when you enter it again it toggles off.

[knotty oracle]

Devcommmands aren't available on a dedicated server.

[calm pumice]

oh? It says True though

[knotty oracle]

Though if you're cool with mods, there's one that can enable this.

[proven niche]

Enter debugmode again. It gets to 'true' with devcommands then when you enter it again it toggles off.

[calm pumice]

I dont follow, sorry.

it says true, you want me to toggle it off and try?

it seems as if debugmode just isnt an option? Feel like it would popualte here if it was?

[calm pumice]

is this singleplayer though?

[proven niche]

Yes.

[calm pumice]

So I guess its not a thing on dedicated? I see this mod, was this the one you are talking about @knotty oracle ? https://thunderstore.io/c/valheim/p/JereKuusela/Server_devcommands/

[knotty oracle]

That's the one, yeah.

[calm pumice]

ah ok, so devcommands is actually not a thing at all for dedicated servers? Or did that get disabled somehow on my end?

[knotty oracle]

As I said, no, devcommands don't work on dedicated servers.

[proven niche]

You said you were getting devcommands = true.
#dedicated-server message

[knotty oracle]

Yeah, the game will do that.

[calm pumice]

I was yeah, thats where the confusion came from

Initially, I wasnt able to do devcommands, said I wasnt server admin. Went through the process of whitelisting my steam ID, after doing that, it said Devcommands command worked, and I was admin. So, sort of misleading output from the code lol. Sorry if this info was obvious from the beginning, I didnt see that stipulation documented anywhere, but I might have missed it in the wiki

ill try this mod though

[calm pumice]

was that really always there? lmao. Its even in all red haha

wow im dumb, sorry!

or did you just sneak it in? :p

[knotty oracle]

No, it's been there a long time, and was put in red for a very good reason.

[calm pumice]

indeed, well my bad!

[daring basin]

can you tell me, are 2 cores and 4 GB of RAM suitable for a valheim dedicated server? considering that there will be 2 people playing

[final current]

Just barely. Quad-core is the community-recommended minimum.

[final current]

It might still work. Is this a headless Linux server? 4GB not quite enough for Valheim Dedicated Server on Windows, KDE, Gnome, or macOS.

[daring basin]

i use linux

ubuntu without graphics

[final current]

Cool deal

[daring basin]

I mean, it's possible that it'll fit?

[final current]

It will take 20% or so of a single core while idle, but doesn't spike much except for the initial world generation or new area locations generation. As for RAM, my established world has the server process at 2.7GB of RAM consumed. If you have a swap partition configured and it's on SSD, that could be a fine safety net.

[dull oyster]

Which would y'all say is better for hosting a dedicated server in NA west coast, gportal or dathost? We have players from central canada, the midwest and south.

[fervent violet]

Might be a dumb question, but how do I give myself an item running as admin under LinuxGSM?

I tried with spawn but it just says that it is not valid in the current context

[gentle dagger]

hello! i am hoping someone can help me with this problem i am doing a dedicated server i got it running has vanilla but i want mods so i got it running BepInEx but when i put mods on the plugin folder they load but do not work in game.

[fervent violet]

Shit ok how do I restore to the latest save? I can only find backups done every 12 hours I am unable to find the saves that happen frequently

[final current]

We don't give advice with 3rd-party hosting sites, sorry.

[final current]

You would need a mod like Server devcommands installed client-side in order to use those while connected to a dedicated server.

[final current]

Does the mod require both client-side and server-side installation? Many are one, the other, or both. If you installed BepInEx from scratch, make sure your BepInEx/config/BepInEx.cfg has Type = GameObject set in [Preloader.Entrypoint]. Ultimately if you still can't get it to work, you might try in #mods-issues. We focus on vanilla dedicated server in here.

[final current]

The latest one should be <savedir>/worlds_local/<world name>.fwl and <savedir>/worlds_local/<world name>.db. It will be flushed to that location from memory periodically at the end of each save interval.

Not sure what you mean by restore, though, unless you have a copy of those files before the next flush and you're trying to bring the world back to that state… in which case you would stop the server, replace the files with the ones you saved. Be sure to back up everything you can before such an operation.

[peak perch]

Is there any way to host a new dedicated server from a separate PC and adjust the world modifiers? (This PC won't actually have a character in the world, just hosting)

[final current]

Definitely. You can do any one of these:

• Start a world on a game client, adjust modifiers, switch it to locally managed, then copy it from your worlds_local dir to the server's <savedir>/worlds_local dir.
• Add -modifier <modifier> <value> and -setkey <global key> arguments to server startup at any time, whether when first starting the world or later. Description of the arguments can be found in the manual that ships with the server and their values are documented by the community in https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/World_Modifiers and https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Global_Keys
• A player in the server's adminlist can use the setworldmodifier <modifier> <value> game console command when connected to the server. If they have the Server devcommands mod installed, they can additionally use setkey <global key>.

Any one of those 3 will set it in the world metadata and it will come back on next restart unless overridden by a comand-line arg.

[torpid mantle]

heyy, anyone know why when I try uploading OdinShipPlus to my dedicated server I keep gettin a message saying my server has failed to run

[final current]

#mods-issues may be able to help you better.

[pallid python]

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why the world that I transferred to my dedicated server won't actually load? I started on a Windows PC, it was a steam cloud save so I moved it to local and then copied the .db and .fwl files from C:\Users\Me\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local to /home/steam/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local. That's where the "Dedicated" world files were when I first spun up the server. But when I load in, I still have all my items from a previous save, but I start in the starting area

nvm, it was all there, it just spawned me at the original starting area

[final current]

It is kind of strange it would take you there unless you were working from an old version of your character or your character or world files got modified. Still have your same structures and whatnot?

[pallid python]

Yeah all the structures were there, same seed and everything. Files were basically vanilla, no modification at all

[proven niche]

I think I remember reading somewhere that your character's location on each world is saved in the character's .fch file not in the world's .fwl or .db files. That may or may not be right but something to keep in mind as a possibility, anyway.

[final current]

It is right.

[pallid python]

where is the .fch file? I've only seen .vdf, .fwl and .db

[final current]

It's in your game client's characters_local dir, or your game client cloud sync's characters dir. It sounds like you weren't messing with it though, so maybe some other issue.

[pallid python]

characters just had steam_autocloud.vdf and characters was empty, probably had to save them as local I'm guessing?

[final current]

If your client is on Windows, Steam usually puts them in %SystemDrive%\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<steam user ID>\892970\remote\characters

[pallid python]

ah ok ty for that. hopefully shouldn't need it in the future but I'll add it to the notes

[turbid oak]

sorry but can anyone give me a hand here my friend sent me over his world we been building on but now i have made it a dedicated server but when i place his files to my world_local folder, the world does not load, it just makes a new world?

[final current]

Are you on Linux, macOS, or Windows? How are you launching the server? Is it being launched under the same user whose savedir you copied the files to?

And make sure it's worlds_local, not world_local

[pallid python]

is there a way to install mods server wide so they're loaded when the player loads the world/server, or are they all client side?

[final current]

They are typically either client-side, server-side, or require installation on both sides. As far as I know, there's no way for a server to force clients to install a mod. Best to check the mod's documentation or ask specifics in #mods-discussion

[turbid oak]

got it working

is there a mod or somthing i can do to stop players cheating and using wemod on the server

[final current]

A better question for #mods-discussion

[daring marten]

Been running a dedicated server with friends. First time I have played since Hildir update. The desync and network lag have made the multiplayer experience unplayable. No mods. Totally vanilla. Great connection. Well above spec machine. Happens everywhere on the map, but the Ashlands are the absolute worst. Any tips or ideas?

[final current]

Are you using Crossplay or Steam/direct connectivity?

[daring marten]

Direct. Have actually tried removing crossplay out of suspicion of it being an issue but the server is not accesible without the option enabled.

[final current]

There's no such thing as direct while crossplay is enabled, unfortunately. That's the first thing I would tackle, personally, assuming all of your players are on the Steam version of the game. It means you will need to make sure your ISP isn't using CGNAT and that you have UDP port-forwarding set up for the game and query port on your NAT.

Outside of that, there are not many optimizations you can do server-side. The bulk of calculation and decisions are the responsibility of individual game clients. The Ashlands is rough and if one of your players enters a zone in Ashlands first and they have a slower CPU, memory in swap, or are on Wi-fi instead of ethernet, everyone else will feel it, moreso in Ashlands than in other areas it seems.

[frozen zephyr]

you also want to change port server is running on when switching from crossplay to non-crossplay, or wait a while to connect so playfab servers have time to clear cache and clients dont try and use crossplay to connect anymore

[wise marten]

Hello guys, I’ve checked and searched up but I can’t figure out how to make a dedicated server, anyone can explain?

[final current]

It can be downloaded via Steam or SteamCMD. In Steam, you can find it under Valheim Dedicated Server in the Tools filter in the Library view. It will be available free even if you haven't purchased the game through Steam. If using SteamCMD, use app ID 896660 (can be done using anonymous login).

Once downloaded, in the app's directory there will be a PDF manual covering launching and parameters.

There are also some specific setup hints on the wiki:
https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Dedicated_servers

[wise marten]

I appreciate it man 🙏

[wise marten]

The wiki is a little bit confusing, is it possible if you can give me a few small step by step process..?

I finally got the dedicated server tool/downloaded

[final current]

I would start with the PDF manual before the wiki, and let us know if you're on Linux, macOS, or Windows, and how you plan to manage the server process (e.g. a cmd.exe window, a systemd unit, a docker container).

[wise marten]

I suck at coding and stuff.. I really don’t understand it 😅

Maybe I have better luck searching up a video abt it

Visual will help a lot better 🤔

[final current]

Give the PDF a try first. You've done the first step, downloading it, next step is to make a copy of the startup script and modify it to start the server configured the way you want it.

[frozen cradle]

Hey all, had a question about hardware for improving performance of a heavily modded (190+) dedicated server. Preface is I'm aware this is a hubristic amount of mods that will absolutely tank fps and latency vs. Less mods.

Anyhoo, this server is for me and one other friend to play on, mostly PC LAN but occasionally online, and we both have gigabit FIOS. I'm playing on a fairly new Legion 7 laptop, they're on an older desktop with an i7-6700K, 32gb of ddr4, and a Radeon 7900 xt. The dedicated server is running on an even older desktop with an i7-4790K and 32gb of ddr3.

We've already updated our clients with the common performance improvement suggestions by using Vulkan and making the changes to Valheim's boot.ini, which improves things for a bit but Valheim will slowly bog down until we quit Valheim and restart, which works but since we went insane with the mods Valheim takes almost 10 minutes to get to the main menu. We're not currently using any Network or BetterNetworking mods, online posts seemed to be unclear if they would help in LAN situations.

Since the CPU on the desktop is old and the one on the dedicated server is ancient, I've been looking at upgrading at least one thing to a more modern cpu/memory. Reading online, I can't tell if we'd see more improvements with a more powerful computer hosting the server, or if my partner's computer had a more beefy cpu and ram to handle all the extra instances and creatures added by all the mods. Some people online seem to suggest having a player online with a slow computer will do more to tank game performance than if the server host itself is slow.

Where would we see the most improvement? Making a beefier server, or updating the gaming desktop and bumping the server up.to the 6700k with ddr4?

[final current]

Are the mods loaded on the client, the server, or both?

With that many customizations, you'd be better off actually measuring system metrics during peak load vs listening to anything we'd have to say. We'd just be shooting in the dark, especially with these mods we're unfamiliar with. Measure CPU usage of the Valheim Dedicated Server process and your player desktops' Valheim processes, and see how long any of them sustain near-100% of a system. If it's anything longer than quick bursts, then CPU would definitely be an area to tackle. If the server or any of your players' desktops start using swap memory while playing, that's going to be a massive performance sink and you'll need to add more RAM where that occurs. You mentioned being on 32GB on both, so this is probably not a problem, though you also mentioned the server is on a desktop and desktop OSes are often RAM hogs.

My shot-in-the-dark guess is that any upgrades are better spent on your player desktops instead of the server.

Latency and reliability are harder to measure, but there are some fixes you can make on vanilla or modded setups without needing to measure anything:

1. Remove Crossplay from your setup if your players all use the Steam-delivered Valheim and you have some IT networking savvy. You'll need to get your network set up to route or forward UDP traffic directly from the Internet to the server.
2. For any of your players on the same LAN as the server, have them connect to the LAN IP instead of the external/Internet IP address. You can set up a DHCP reservation for the server's MAC address to prevent this IP address from changing.
3. If the server or any of your players use Wi-fi, switch to Ethernet, DAC, or fiber connectivity to your Internet router and any intermediate switching equipment.
4. Drop any unnecessary VPNs or Internet security suites.

[true gust]

Hi Guys! I am in the process of setting up a dedicated server for me and my friends. We would like to make a slow progression server, basically remove boss stones, add eikthyr stone after 48 hours, and add back each boss stone 7 days after that consecutively. I have setup a valheim dedicated server on linux with BepInEX and rcon + rconcommands dll, i can connect to the rcon and send commands (only kick seems to work so far, say or other commands do not seem to work.) My idea was to write a script that runs every hour or so and checks when bossstones should be placed back via RCON. But i think this approach is not gonna work, or maybe i am missing something.

TL;DR: Basically my question is:

• Is there a plugin that does slow progression like i described above?
• Is there any other way to send commands to the valheim server from a linux bash/python/whatever script
• Would like to keep valheim as vanilla as possible, unless that is not possible for this setup.

Thanks in advance 🙂

[final current]

Re slow progression plugin, you'd get a lot more knowing answers from #mods-discussion.

There is currently no way to send commands to the server from another process over pipes/stdin/stdout/signals as far as anyone knows, unfortunately. You can trigger graceful shut down with the INT or TERM signals and that's about it.

You can of course send a limited set of commands as a player, and a bigger set with mods like Server devcommands. For basic server information, there also happens to be a Steam query port available (e.g. 2457) if the server is set to public and not using Crossplay. You can get version information and active player counts in real-time from this using A2S queries.

[true gust]

Thanks for the quick answer! Seems like having a dedicated machine running the game with admin player that just executes the commands might be the easiest solution for what i would want.

[frozen cradle]

Awesome thanks, appreciate the super detailed reply. Mods are on both clients and server. I do have cross-play enabled so can turn that off. I already am using a static ip foe the server to connect with port forwarding. And yes, the server is running on a Windows box. Will dig more into the performance stats of the server and clients next time we're playing. On the newer legion 7 laptop at least even while I was experiencing stuttering in the larger build areas with crops and takes animals, cpu and GPU were at ~37% but RAM usage stayed constant at 27 GB with not much else running beyond Valheim and Discord. I thought maybe it could just be having so much in one place, but my partner also experienced lag and hiccups just fighting in the black forest.

The mods are a massive hodge podge of skills, creatures, build tools, weapons and more, and paring down basically any of that will definitely improve things, but we're also excited at all the new content. I'm next taking aim at the Explorer and Hunting skill mods, as I think the auto-pinning of animals and forageables is likely hitting too hard for how cool the feature is.

[novel aurora]

Hey all, just looking for a server to join.
I can’t be active like I use to be. Willing n able to help w whatever. LOTS of experience building, would prefer that over all else

[final current]

Give #1024264966712340510 a look.

[turbid oak]

is this the anti cheat stopping someone come in because they trying to cheat?

[knotty oracle]

What anticheat?

[turbid oak]

Azumatt AzuAntiCheat

[knotty oracle]

Oh. Then #mods-discussion

[turbid oak]

i sorted it

[gilded vine]

What was it? I had one of those and never found out what it was.

[frozen cradle]

So weird issue; I'm using the start_headless_server script to start my modded Valheim Dedicated server. I removed the -crossplay flag from the start command to remove crossplay as recommended. However, for some unknown reason doing this meant I could no longer connect to the server from my Windows laptop. It sould simply say "Connecting.." then return me to the Valheim main menu with a blank error box. I tried a few times with the same result.

Stopping the server, adding the -crossplay switch back in, then starting the server, and I could connect without issue. Is there a different way to disable crossplay?

[final current]

You did it correctly. As for the connection issue, how were you connecting? Loopback IP, LAN IP, Internet/external IP, domain name or Crossplay join code?

[frozen cradle]

In this case, I was connecting via external IP. I could also find the server under the Community server list and attempt to join that way

For the external IP, that was adding the server to my favorites list using the external IP

I could see the server version and player count once it was added to my favorites list, or in the Community server list

[final current]

Alrighty. When you first disable crossplay, it can take some time for Microsoft's relays to lose your lobby registration. Once they do, the networking is completely in your hands. You would need to ensure that your ISP does not employ CGNAT for your connection, you would need to forward the two UDP ports over your own NAT, and enable those inbound ports locally if you are running any firewall software. Ideally you'd have a DHCP reservation for your server's ethernet MAC address so your forwarding rules are stable and so you can create a favorites list entry for the LAN IP for a more direct connection.

It's rare, but some routers and some ISPs prevent a local-route connection to your own external IP address even after you have all of that figured out.

Wheras with Crossplay, Valheim Dedicated Server makes an outbound connection to Microsoft's relay servers and they take care of the networking. Your external IP address is simply an identifier to help others find which relay you're using and no one connects to you.

[frozen cradle]

Interesting! Ok. I definitely have a static IP set for the server as I've used the same box for hosting dedicated servers for other games before. But I'll double check the port forwarding. I've port forwarded before, and when I was at work today I rudely assumed I had port forwarded for Valheim as well since I'd hosted dedicated Valheim servers before for my friends. But since I always had crossplay enabled (since that's the default), I may have just been taking advantage of the Microsoft relaying and never realized I've never previously set up port forwarding before.

Thank you again for the detailed answers, I'll take a look at ensuring I have port forwarding set up.

[final current]

No problem at all, and if you did set up the port-forwarding, make sure UDP is forwarded for both ports (TCP won't be enough)

[steep roost]

Did they fix the stuttering/lag that happens in ashlands in multiplayer

[final current]

If you're asking about the public test build, I haven't heard anything pertaining to Ashlands specifically. If it improves the performance of your players' gameplay, that'll help prevent lag in any biome.

[steep roost]

When we are in ashlands in a group of 3+ the mobs start to glitch out and stutter around. It only happens in ashlands, and we arent lagging the mobs are glitching.

[final current]

Yeah, you certainly aren't the only ones. AFAIK, we've not really had a definitive solution to it in here. I haven't any time to instrument things and research it.

[tulip forge]

valheim wont use steamcmd as a valid backend for hosting, any ideas? im not really able to use normal steam since its a headless server and steam client wont start without an x server

[final current]

SteamCMD is just used for the install or upgrade step. Afterwards, the Steamworks SDK Redistributable will be used by the server process. It has its own Steam client that runs behind the scenes.

If you're seeing errors about graphics shaders not working, note that's normal. Valheim Dedicated Server tries to load some unnecessarily and they'll fail somewhat-gracefully if you don't have a windowing server running.

[tulip forge]

the server hangs right after "unloading assets" when i have crossplay off

[final current]

Sounds like it's working fine. Though if this is a cmd.exe or Powershell window, make sure you haven't clicked inside of it to activate QuickEdit (pausing most server processes). How are you connecting?

[tulip forge]

this is on linux, and im using ssh to start the server. the reason i think its not recognizing steamcmd is because when i have "-crossplay" in the launch script it boots fine and i can get ingame from my client on my main pc. when i have crossplay off, it hangs right after a line that says

Unloading 2 unused Assets to reduce memory usage. Loaded Objects now: 200741.
Total: 1501.678384 ms (FindLiveObjects: 15.908319 ms CreateObjectMapping: 20.615247 ms MarkObjects: 1464.287167 ms  DeleteObjects: 0.865838 ms)

@final current

[final current]

Right, that line looks just fine. How are you connecting?

[tulip forge]

like, what client?

im using steam (non cmd) on linux, with valheim running through proton. it connects fine when crossplay is enabled, but when crossplay is disabled i cant connect, even with direct ip.

[final current]

In the Valheim game client, are you connecting via loopback IP, LAN IP, external/Internet IP, domain name, or Crossplay join code?

[tulip forge]

external ip

[final current]

I suspect if you connect via your server's LAN IP it will work just fine. But either way, one of four things is likely happening when you try to connect via external IP directly after disabling Crossplay and it's not working:

• If you had just recently shut down a server running Crossplay, your external IP address+port might still be registered to a Microsoft relay, in which case you can either wait for the registration to expire or temporarily switch to a different port.
• Your ISP might be using CGNAT, in which case you would have to work with them on establishing a more direct route from the Internet to your server if they offer such a thing.
• Your own NAT needs to forward UDP on the Valheim port and Steam query port from WAN to your server's LAN address.
• If you're running the server in a container, or custom bridge network, you will need to ensure the port is forwarded from the bridge to your host. If using a MACVLAN or IPVLAN, you'll need to make sure you're connecting to the LAN IP you've established for the container's namespace within that MACVLAN or IPVLAN.

[tulip forge]

connecting with internal ip doesnt work. the reason i think its hanging is because normally when it finishes booting theres a line about "session open with 0 players" or something

well, that and the fact that i cant connect

[final current]

"Session _ with join code _ is active with _ player(s)" is something you'll only see with Crossplay. When Crossplay is enabled, your inbound ports are blocked, any port-forwarding you've set up is ignored, and your server forms an outbound connection to an Azure PlayFab Party Relay and the players form outbound connections to the same relay. No one connects to your server.

[tulip forge]

gotcha. but still, i cant connect with crossplay off

[final current]

Did you address all 4 of those bullet points?

And you don't have any local firewall rules on the server?

[tulip forge]

@final current

• behavior is no different if i leave it off for a couple hours and then start without crossplay, plus im not on linux so unless the microsoft relay is happening outside my network i shouldnt be affected by that at all
• i am not on CGNAT
• would that be done through firewall or through the router, and how can i check if thats correct?
• ive port forwarded everything correctly im sure, since other servers (minecraft, which has no crossplay and requires port forwarding) connected fine

[final current]

If not on Linux, what OS is the server running on? Microsoft's relay lives outside your network, that's how the Crossplay "Just Works" magic works. Microsoft handles the deeper networking for you.

Yes, forwarding would be done at your router. You'd forward 2456 and 2457 (or your custom server port and +1) for UDP protocol (TCP alone is not enough) to your LAN IP. Valheim Dedicated Server does not use UPnP or NAT-PMP to do this for you.

You may want to get connectivity to your server's LAN IP working first. If that's not even working, it could be an indicator of where there problem is and if you've already forwarded ports, could be why the forwarding isn't working. It could mean local firewall rules are blocking it (telling us your OS/distribution will help us troubleshoot), or that your LAN IP has changed recently. A DHCP reservation for your server's ethernet MAC address is highly recommended to keep the LAN IP consistent.

[tulip forge]

i am on linux, sorry if i was unclear

[final current]

Cool, which distro, and are you running it in a container or just as-is on the host?

[tulip forge]

endeavouros (arch based), bare metal

[final current]

That one looks to have firewalld up by default. You'll want to check firewalld's rules if you haven't already.

And if you make changes, you'll probably want to switch to permanent rules configuration.

[tulip forge]

i havent made specific exceptions for the ports steam uses, but i can always turn the firewall off and see if thats the issue

[final current]

You'd need exceptions for both Valheim's UDP port and the Steam query port (or appropriate service-matching rules, though I don't know firewalld's service-matching well enough to advise on how)

[tulip forge]

valheim uses UDP?? that explains a lot

[final current]

Yep, both ports are UDP

[tulip forge]

and this would be only if theres a firewall?

i.e, firewall disabled can rule it out?

[final current]

It would be one way to rule out the firewall, yes. You could stop it properly via systemd mechanics. Then you could try connecting via LAN IP again. Once you have that working, can move on to testing your NAT's port-forwarding.

https://discovery.endeavouros.com/applications/firewalld/2022/03/#firewalld-removal the first stop command ought to be enough

[tulip forge]

ive disabled the firewall temporarily

still no luck

[final current]

What is your start command line (feel free to redact password)?

And you're connecting to the LAN IP for the server (e.g. what you see for your ethernet adapter in ifconfig or the src address in ip route get 1)?

[tulip forge]

./valheim_server.x86_64 -name "Valkheim3" -port 25596 -world "Vilnurholt" -password "password" -public 0

when run through the normal steam client it launches fine and seems to work without playfab, but if i do it that way it adds a lot of overhead and also makes it so i cant join the server on my main pc, since steam wont let "valheim" be open twice (even though its a server and not a client)

running the script still no luck still hangs

this is baffling and frustrating

[final current]

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./linux64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export SteamAppId=892970

in the shell you run that command in, before you run the command.

Neither Steam nor SteamCMD should need to be running at that point.

[final current]

(It will connect to Steam anonymously so you can use the game through Steam as you would normally)

[tulip forge]

yes that is in the startup script i thought you meant just the line with the config stuff

[final current]

OK, cool, sorry, just making sure.

[final current]

I don't think it's hanging, based on the output you've shared with us, but you can attach your whole output log if you'd like.

You can do sudo ss --listening --udp --processes to check if it's actually listening on the ports or not.

sudo nft list ruleset
sudo iptables -L

to check the kernel for firewall DROP rules from any other daemon if you're sure you disabled firewalld.

[turbid oak]

My iP changed that's all

[scenic hinge]

Is there any way to enable player based raids on my nitrado server?

[gilded vine]

Thanks for getting back to me on that.

[final current]

I don't know Nitrado's available settings, but if they at least allow download and upload, you could download your world, modify it in a local session, and re-upload it.

[tulip forge]

output of sudo iptables -L:

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination         

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination         

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination   

output of sudo nft list ruleset:

theres also the oddity of steamcmd having a different install location for game files than steam client

[tulip forge]

output of sudo ss --listening --udp --processes while server is running with crossplay disabled:

State   Recv-Q   Send-Q     Local Address:Port      Peer Address:Port  Process                                      
UNCONN  0        0                0.0.0.0:53394          0.0.0.0:*      users:(("avahi-daemon",pid=453,fd=14))      
UNCONN  0        0                0.0.0.0:25597          0.0.0.0:*      users:(("valheim_server.",pid=1558,fd=65))  
UNCONN  0        0                0.0.0.0:mdns           0.0.0.0:*      users:(("avahi-daemon",pid=453,fd=12))      
UNCONN  0        0                0.0.0.0:55553          0.0.0.0:*      users:(("valheim_server.",pid=1558,fd=69))  
UNCONN  0        0                      *:44804                *:*      users:(("valheim_server.",pid=1558,fd=60))  
UNCONN  0        0                   [::]:58091             [::]:*      users:(("avahi-daemon",pid=453,fd=15))      
UNCONN  0        0                      *:25596                *:*      users:(("valheim_server.",pid=1558,fd=9))   
UNCONN  0        0                   [::]:mdns              [::]:*      users:(("avahi-daemon",pid=453,fd=13))  

as well as its whole log, captured from terminal instead of taken from the log file since the log file isnt getting everything?

[final current]

Thanks for all that, @tulip forge. The log output and listening ports do indicate the server working fine. Some of those .dll errors at the beginning look concerning (maybe from mods?) but if those show during Crossplay startup as well, then not a huge concern.

Biggest thing I notice is that your firewall rules still seem active and they definitely don't have a UDP accept line for :25596 and :25597. Did you shut down firewalld via systemd?

[tulip forge]

i did shut down firewall via systemd, but it may have turned back on since i rebooted. i also have UFW at the same time, not sure why i have both UFW and firewall-cmd

ufw: inactive

stopped firewalld again, it was active

State   Recv-Q   Send-Q     Local Address:Port      Peer Address:Port  Process                                      
UNCONN  0        0                0.0.0.0:53394          0.0.0.0:*      users:(("avahi-daemon",pid=453,fd=14))      
UNCONN  0        0                0.0.0.0:25597          0.0.0.0:*      users:(("valheim_server.",pid=4627,fd=64))  
UNCONN  0        0                0.0.0.0:mdns           0.0.0.0:*      users:(("avahi-daemon",pid=453,fd=12))      
UNCONN  0        0                0.0.0.0:59598          0.0.0.0:*      users:(("valheim_server.",pid=4627,fd=69))  
UNCONN  0        0                      *:37119                *:*      users:(("valheim_server.",pid=4627,fd=76))  
UNCONN  0        0                   [::]:58091             [::]:*      users:(("avahi-daemon",pid=453,fd=15))      
UNCONN  0        0                      *:25596                *:*      users:(("valheim_server.",pid=4627,fd=9))   
UNCONN  0        0                   [::]:mdns              [::]:*      users:(("avahi-daemon",pid=453,fd=13))

[final current]

Is there still a firewalld table listed in sudo nft list ruleset?

[tulip forge]

nope

[final current]

Cool, are you able to connect to the server as <LAN IP>:25596 in the client now?

[tulip forge]

no access to my main pc at the moment unfortunately, all i can do is ssh into the server and access its filesystem

[final current]

Alrighty, when it comes time to test, make sure you have your server's latest LAN IP (typically 192.168…) from ifconfig or your preferred method and make sure the firewalld table is still gone from the nft list. Everything points to <LAN IP>:25596 being alive and well.

[tulip forge]

the internal ip is 10.0.1.196

[radiant pollen]

Hi guys, I have win-run (GSM) dedicated server, everything was fine until we got bug with unability use ship and restarted server (~hour ago).
Now it's not visible at global, but I can connect via direct localhost:2456. Haven't changed configs for router/system, no reboots etc.
Any hints? Other games on same ports run fine.

02/19/2025 20:57:58: Using steam_appid.txt
02/19/2025 20:57:58: Using steam APPID:892970
Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 892970
SteamInternal_SetMinidumpSteamID:  Caching Steam ID:  76561197960265728 [API loaded no]
02/19/2025 20:57:58: Server ID 90071992547409920
02/19/2025 20:57:58: Authentication:k_ESteamNetworkingAvailability_Waiting
02/19/2025 20:57:58: Steam game server initialized
02/19/2025 20:57:58: Using default prefs
02/19/2025 20:57:58: Valheim version: 0.219.16 (network version 32)
...
02/19/2025 20:59:11: Registering lobby
02/19/2025 20:59:11: Opened Steam server

No connection ID, nothing

[tulip forge]

ill poke my friend and see if hes able to join

[final current]

If this is a fancy homelab setup, would want to make sure they are on the same VLAN or that there's a route between their VLAN and the one that 10.0.1.196 is on in order to connect Valheim to 10.0.1.196:25596

[final current]

Sometimes the global list is slow. You've got -public 1 in the server args? And are you still able to access via external IP?

[radiant pollen]

public=1 is not an issue, I can't connect on my own public IP
tried everything: different ports, public on/off, crossplay on/off, windows|router restart, ip/dns flush

[final current]

If you're not using Crossplay and you're forwarding the UDP ports over your NAT, make sure your LAN IP is stable, ideally with a DHCP reservation for the server's ethernet adapter MAC address. That way you won't have to keep updating your forwarding rules when your LAN IP changes.

[radiant pollen]

Icarus works on same ports when I run it, server is visible, friends can connect
local network works as mac-bind, once again, I didn't have re-connect of network, just restarted server.
I was spamming some 504 errors in log before restart, btw. But I was not fast enought to save it 😦

I've also tried to run Valheim on Icarus ports, same. it's not visible (non-connectable) in global network.
Can it be issue with recent updates? I'd like to rollback version to try

win-netstat

 [valheim_server.exe]
  UDP    0.0.0.0:2457           *:*                                    30100
 [valheim_server.exe]```

[final current]

If you recently switched off Crossplay, Microsoft could still have a registration entry for your public IP address/port combo, in which case you would have to either wait for the registration to expire or switch to a different port.
You would be able to see this with the PlayFab queries in Player.log on the client side.

[radiant pollen]

yeah, it was PlayFab errors, BUT I haven't switched crossplay until routine:

1. restart game/server/steam
2. restart router/PC

[final current]

If Crossplay is still switched off and you're sure you've got those two UDP ports forwarded at your NAT, then try to connect to the external IP in Valheim, and look for this in your Player.log:

PlayFab lobby matching search filter 'string_key10 eq '<external IP>:2456' and string_key2 eq 'True'': Got back … lobbies

If it's more than zero lobbies, it means Microsoft still has a stale entry for you. Replacing <external IP> in that message with your actual external IP address.

[radiant pollen]

where can i find that file?

[final current]

Is your game client on Linux, macOS, or Windows?

[radiant pollen]

Windows with Windows GSM

[final current]

Asking about client, not server

Rather, the game itself

[radiant pollen]

I play from same PC, I can connect with localhost:2456, so it's WIN-steam I suppose

[final current]

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\Player.log

The PlayFab queries will happen when you load the servers menus or when you add an entry for the server.

[radiant pollen]

02/19/2025 21:25:13: Steam initialized, persona:Degerio
02/19/2025 21:25:13: PlayFab custom ID set to "Steam_76561197992867576"

[final current]

This is what you'll be looking for: #dedicated-server message

[radiant pollen]

02/19/2025 20:49:12: PlayFab lobby matching search filter 'string_key4 eq '637658' and string_key2 eq 'True'': Got back zero lobbies

but it was 45 mins ago and haven't repeated

[final current]

That looks like a Join Code entry rather than your external IP address entry. Join Code will not work at all with Crossplay disabled.

[radiant pollen]

I have my connection-code saved, but it's not working either
when server starts it does not write in log that connection code is XXXXX

[final current]

Right, if you've disabled Crossplay, there will be no join code.

[radiant pollen]

I haven't, well, at least for some tries before
current config is

serverip="192.168.1.18"
serverport="2456"
serverqueryport="2457"
servermap="GoDGoRUA"
servermaxplayer="8"
servergslt=""
serverparam="-savedir ".\save-data" -saveinterval 1800 -backups 4 -backupshort 7200 -backuplong 43200 -public 0 -crossplay```

[final current]

If you're able to connect to localhost:2456, it's a good sign that Crossplay is disabled. May want to check those inner double-quotes in the config.