Carrier Command 2 Dedicated Server on Linux

How to install, configure, and run the Carrier Command 2 (CC2) dedicated_server.exe on Linux via Wine.

Installation

CC2 (incl. its dedicated server binary) can be installed via SteamCMD with steamcmd +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows +force_install_dir ~/.wine/drive_c/CC2_server +login $STEAM_USERNAME +app_update 1489630 validate +quit. However, the resulting installation lacks required DLLs, without which the server will fail with the log message failed to initialise SteamGameServer and no further details (geometa.co.uk support ticket). The missing DLLs (steamclient.dll, tier0_s.dll, and vstdlib_s.dll) are shipped with the regular Steam Windows client (not Linux SteamCMD).

A more streamlined installation approach is to copy the files required to run the dedicated server from a local Windows installation of the Steam client and CC2. The following PowerShell commands can be used to locate, pack, and upload a ~150 MB ZIP archive containing all required files to a Linux host, which will later run the dedicated server via Wine:

$steam_dir = (Get-ItemProperty -Path Registry::HKCU\SOFTWARE\Valve\Steam).SteamPath
$cc2_dir = (Get-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Steam App 1489630").InstallLocation
Compress-Archive -CompressionLevel Fastest -Path "$steam_dir/steamclient.dll","$steam_dir/tier0_s.dll","$steam_dir/vstdlib_s.dll","$cc2_dir/dedicated_server.exe","$cc2_dir/steam_api.dll","$cc2_dir/steam_appid.txt","$cc2_dir/rom_*" -DestinationPath "CC2_server.zip"
scp CC2_server.zip user@host:~/

The Linux host needs only a regular Wine installation (Wine 8.0 on Debian Bookworm is known to work). No winetricks are required. On the Linux host, create the required directory structure and unpack the uploaded ZIP archive:

mkdir -p ~/.wine/drive_c/CC2_server
unzip CC2_server.zip -d ~/.wine/drive_c/CC2_server

Configuration

This repository includes a default server_config.xml. Edit the file to suit your needs. The config defaults to load a save.xml file placed in C:/CC2_server/saved_games/slot_0/ if it exists. You can upload any save.xml file from your local CC2 installation (%APPDATA%\Carrier Command 2\saved_games).

The modify_inventory.py script can be used to change item counts in the player carrier inventory. Set the desired item counts by first editing the item_ids_qtys dictionary, then run the script on a save game of your choice (script will ask which).

Running the Server

Start the server as follows (preferably in a screen/tmux session). The command line includes WINEDLLOVERRIDES to disable superfluous services.

cd ~/.wine/drive_c/CC2_server
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="explorer.exe=d;services.exe=d;wbemprox.dll=d" wine dedicated_server.exe

Note that when running on a headless server (no GUI), Wine will print error messages regarding the failure to open graphical windows (e.g., 0024:err:winediag:nodrv_CreateWindow Application tried to create a window, but no driver could be loaded.). These errors can be ignored, as the CC2 dedicated_server.exe is a command line only program.

To run the CC2 server as a background service, this repository includes a systemd.service file. Note that you may need to loginctl enable-linger $USERNAME as root to ensure the service is not terminated when the user logs out and that the server will be started automatically after system boot.

Known Issues

• Trying to connect to a dedicated server on the local host or network via the in-game server browser may fail. Connect local clients via carrier_command.exe +connect $SERVER_ADDR. Geometa.co.uk Ticket #2254
• The dedicated server can load save games, but cannot write save games! All progress will be lost when the dedicated server is stopped. 1 2 3 4 5
• Performance on VM (with dedicated vCPUs) is significantly worse than running the same save game on a Windows client in single player, despite each thread of the dedicated server limited to ~50% CPU load. Needs further investigation. Possibly a thread synchronization bottleneck. TODO: Try unvirtualized and with NTSYNC.

Additional Documentation

• https://geometa.co.uk/wiki/carrier_command_2/view/dedicated_servers

Debugging (Memo to Self)

Identify missing libraries

Configure Wine debug channels via WINEDEBUG:

WINEDEBUG="warn+module" wine dedicated_server.exe

Output:

00:00:00:0002 : starting server...
...
0024:warn:module:load_dll Failed to load module L"steamclient.dll"; status=c0000135
00:00:00:0009 : failed to initialise SteamGameServer
00:00:00:0009 : shutting down...
00:00:00:0009 : stopping server...

Find save game directory

Run server with save_name="slot_0" in server_configuration.xml and use strace to find file operations on paths that smell like a save game:

strace -f -e trace=%file wine dedicated_server.exe >/tmp/log 2>&1
grep -E 'saved_games|slot_0|save.xml' /tmp/log

Output:

[pid nnnnn] statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/cc2/.wine/dosdevices/c:/CC2_server/saved_games/slot_0/save.xml", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT|AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT, STATX_BASIC_STATS, 0x1cde82c) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid nnnnn] statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/cc2/.wine/dosdevices/c:/CC2_server/saved_games", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT|AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT, STATX_BASIC_STATS, 0x1cde34c) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)