Local RTK Server Setup

This document describes how to set up a local RTK server on a PC running Windows 10 and using VirtualBox 6.1.8. Any deviations from that setup may result in procedural discrepancies.

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1) Create a virtual machine

1. Download Ubuntu Server 16.04 (32-bit)
2. Download and install VirtualBox
   • This document is based on VirtualBox 6.1.8
3. Open VirtualBox and click the New button to create a new virtual machine (VM)
   • Name: RTK
   • Machine Folder: Your choice
   • Type: Linux
   • Version: Ubuntu (32-bit)
   • Memory size: Your choice
   • Create a virtual hard disk now
     • VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)
     • Dynamically allocated
     • File location: Your choice
     • File size: Your choice
4. Double-click on your new VM to start it
5. On the Select start-up disk dialog, click the Choose a virtual optical disk file... button
   • Click the Add button and select the Ubuntu Server 16.04 image that you downloaded in the first step
   • Click Choose and then Start
   • The VM will automatically boot into the Ubuntu Server setup

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2) Install Ubuntu Server

1. Choose your preferred language and then select Install Ubuntu Server
2. Choose your language again, then your location, and then your keyboard layout
3. Enter rtk as the Hostname
4. Enter gm as the Full name for the new user
5. Enter gm again as the Username for your account
6. Enter and confirm any password of your choosing
7. Choose <No> when asked about encrypting your home directory
8. Confirm or adjust your time zone
9. Choose Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM for your Partitioning method
10. Select the virtual optical disk that you created earlier for Select disk to partition (should be the only option)
11. Choose <Yes> for Write the changes to disks and configure LVM?
12. Use the entire disk for Amount of volume group to use for guided partitioning (should be the default option)
13. Choose <Yes> for Write the changes to disks?
14. Leave HTTP proxy information blank
15. Choose No automatic updates
16. <Continue> with the default selections for Choose software to install
17. Choose <Yes> for Install the GRUB boot loader
18. Finish the installation:
    • The installation media should have been removed automatically
    • In the VirtualBox menu bar, if Devices → Optical drives → Remove disk from virtual drive is not grayed out, select it to manually remove the media
    • Choose <Continue>
    • After installation completes, the VM will automatically boot up and eventually prompt you for rtk login:

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3) Install required packages

1. Login as gm using the password that you set during the previous setup
2. At the gm@rtk:~$ prompt, enter sudo apt update
   • You will be asked for your password again since this is your first sudo command
3. Enter sudo apt upgrade and then y to confirm
4. Enter sudo apt-get install build-essential make mysql-server libmysqlclient20 libmysqlclient-dev lua5.1 liblua5.1 liblua5.1-dev and then y to confirm
   • Enter and confirm any password of your choosing for the MySQL "root" user when prompted
5. In the VirtualBox menu bar, select Machine → ACPI Shutdown to turn off your VM

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4) Set up a shared folder for the RTK source

1. Use this guide to set up a shared folder between your Host (i.e. Windows) and Guest (i.e. VM), but note the following caveats:
   • Ignore any discrepancies in the prerequisites; it will still work
   • Select the top-level folder of your copy of the RTK repository for the Folder Path
   • On the Add Share dialog, use rtk for the Folder Name instead of shared
   • The guide includes a few redundant commands; these are harmless, so just follow the instructions and ignore any console output about not being able to do something because it was already done
   • Be sure to use rtk instead of shared on any commands that reference the Folder Name
     • e.g. sudo mount -t vboxsf rtk ~/shared
     • e.g. rtk /home/gm/shared vboxsf defaults 0 0 (separated by tabs)
   • Ignore the Bonus section
2. In the VirtualBox menu bar, select Machine → ACPI Shutdown to turn off your VM

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5) Add VM to host-only network

1. Open VirtualBox, select your VM, click the Settings button, and select the Network tab
   • Switch to the Adapter 2 tab, select Host-only Adapter in the Attached to dropdown and click OK
2. Click the Tools button, and you should see an entry named Virtual Box Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
   • Ensure that the Enable checkbox under DHCP Server is checked
   • Make note of the IP address under IPv4 Address/Mask
3. Boot up your VM
4. After logging in, enter ip addr
   • Find the name of interface that does not have any sort of IP address listed (by default, this will be enp0s8)
5. Enter sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces and add the following lines to the end of the file:
   • allow-hotplug enp0s8
   • iface enp0s8 inet dhcp
6. Press Ctrl + x, then y, then Enter to save your changes
   • VirtualBox remaps the right Ctrl key by default, so use the left Ctrl key
7. Reboot your VM using sudo shutdown -r now
8. After logging back in, enter ip addr | grep 'inet[^6]'
   • One of the resulting lines should contain an IP address that matches the first three numbers of the IP address from step 5.2
   • This is the IP address that will be used to connect to your RTK server, so make note of it
   • If you don't see it in the results, try Troubleshooting Common Issues

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6) Update the IP address in the RTK source

1. In Windows, use any text editor to open the /rtk/conf/map.conf file from your copy of the RTK repository
2. Edit the values for map_ip and loginip to use the IP address obtained in step 5.8
   • e.g. map_ip: 192.168.56.101
   • e.g. loginip: 192.168.56.101
3. Save the file, and the update will automatically sync to your VM via the shared folder configured in step 4

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7) Create the RTK database

1. Back on the VM, use the mysql_config_editor to set up an encrypted login path so that you can securely execute database migration scripts without manually entering your password:
   • mysql_config_editor set --login-path=migrate --host=localhost --user=root --password
   • When prompted for a password, enter the root MySQL password that you set in step 3.4
2. Now you can automatically create and configure the RTK database using database migration scripts:
   • ~/shared/database/migrate.sh
   • Re-run this command any time a new script is added to the repository

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8) Build and run the RTK server executables

1. Navigate to the rtk subfolder of your shared folder:
   • cd ~/shared/rtk
2. Build all servers:
   • make all
3. Start each server:
   • ./login-server &
   • ./char-server &
     • Wait for it to confirm connection to the login server
   • ./map-server &
     • This one takes a while, but wait for it to confirm connection to the char server
4. The servers can be stopped using ./shutdown-mithia-servers whenever you are finished or need to reboot them

Note: You must rebuild the servers any time you make changes to the C code.

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9) Configure the client

1. On Windows, press Windows key + r and enter shell:programfilesx86
2. Copy the included /client/RetroTK folder to the directory that was opened by the previous step
3. Create a shortcut to the copy of RetroTK.exe for your desktop or any other desired location
4. Run the included /client/WHE.exe with administrator privileges and create the following entry:
   • Name of hosts to add: tk0.retrotk.com
   • IP address: The IP address found in step 5.8
5. Run RetroTK.exe to play

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10) Create a GM

1. Create a character via the normal in-game process
2. Log out of the new character
3. On the server, login to MySQL and promote the new character to a GM:
   • /usr/bin/mysql -u root -p
   • USE RTK;
   • UPDATE `Character` SET `ChaGMLevel` = '99' WHERE `ChaName` = '[Your character's name goes here]';
   • exit
4. Log back in

Note: GM characters do not always cause the same in-game behavior as a normal character. For example, mobs may not spawn if the GM is in stealth mode (which it will be by default). So if you notice strange behavior, it might just be that you need to change the settings on your GM or use a non-GM character instead.

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11) Restore item tooltips

You may have noticed that item tooltips are missing. Item meta data is loaded only once at login, so use a GM to reload that data, and then log out and back in. GM commands are performed by "speaking" them in-game like any other regular chat. The GM commands for this are:

• /reloadItem
• /metan

Note: You must reload item meta data any time you make changes to items in the database.

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12) Set up automated database backups

1. Set up another encrypted login path so that you can run mysqldump commands securely without manually entering your password:
   • mysql_config_editor set --login-path=mysqldump --host=localhost --user=root --password
   • When prompted, enter the password for your root MySQL user
2. Use cron to regularly execute a script that creates a full backup of your database:
   • crontab -e
   • Add the line */5 * * * * ~/shared/database/backup.sh to the end of your crontab file
   • Save and exit
3. Cron will now automatically backup your entire database to /database/history/ every 5 minutes
   • You may change the schedule by editing the cron expression
   • backup.sh keeps the latest 72 backups (i.e. six hours) by default

Note: This only backs up the database to your VM server (and your Windows PC via the shared folder). You would still lose everything if you lost your PC, so consider also using a cloud service (e.g. Dropbox) or some other backup method for the mysqldump files.

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13) Manage MySQL database from Host

If you want to use database management software to connect to the MySQL database on your VM server from Windows (as opposed to always using the Ubuntu terminal as in step 10.3), perform the following steps:

1. On your VM, allow remote connections to MySQL from any IP address:
   • sudo nano /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf
   • Comment out the line that starts with bind-address (i.e. add a # at the start of that line)
   • Ctrl + x, then y, then Enter to save your changes
2. Log into MySQL:
   • /usr/bin/mysql -u root -p
3. Create a root user that can login from your Host PC:
   • CREATE USER 'root'@'192.168.56.1' IDENTIFIED BY '[any password of your choosing]';
   • GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'192.168.56.1';
   • FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
4. Now on Windows, download and install the database management software of your choosing
   • Navicat is the one I see recommended most often, but it's like $300 for a license
   • DBeaver is great free alternative, but the UI is less intuitive and might be confusing for inexperienced users
   • Table Plus is another free option that is more limited but might therefore be less intimidating
5. Open your database manager and connect to the database using the IP address of your VM. This will look different depending on which software you installed, but here are the main things you are likely to need to know:
   • Host/Socket: The IP address of your VM (e.g. 192.168.56.101)
   • Port: 3306
   • User: root
   • Password: MySQL root password from step 3.4
   • Database: RTK

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Tips

• Use Shift + PgUp and PgDown to scroll up and down in the Ubuntu Server terminal
• MySQL Cheat Sheet