How do I run the server?

Hello, yes, I need help, I want to run PennMUSH, but I have no idea what I'm doing, AT ALL. I need someone to walk me through the process step by step, by step. Seriously, I don't know anything about C++ or Linux, and unfortunately I'm running on Win98, if someone can help out this poor soul I would be greatly appreciated.

~Moogle

It is hard to answer a very open-ended question like that. What is the problem? Finding the files? Downloading them? Installing them? Running them? Building?

There is a step-by-step discussion about most of that on the page Setting up a Win32 PennMUSH site. It was written a while ago so it might be a bit out-of-date, but try that first.

If you get stuck please post a specific question, eg. what page of the installation guide you are on, what file you can't find, or what error message you get if you do something.

First, I want to know if it will run on Win98, because everything I've read so far talks about only Win95 and WinNT, secondly, I want to know exactly which file(s) to download and thirdly, exactly how to install them, since it's muhc more difficult the just double clicking on a setup.exe.

~Moogle

Yes, it runs under Windows 98, I just tried it. The reason the web pages mention 95/NT is they are a bit old.



It's not much more difficult. You download one file, unzip it, and execute one program. Can't get much easier than that.

1. Go to this site: http://ftp.pennmush.org/Win32Binaries/
2. Download this file: 175p5-noltar.zip
3. Unzip it (say, into your C: drive)
4. Change to the "c:\pennmush\game" directory
5. Execute pennmush.exe

The server is now running! Connect to it using your client at:

IP: 127.0.0.1
Port: 4201

I got it running, thanks for the help, this is probably going to sound excedingly dumb but, client? port? *sheepish grin*

Check out my MUDs FAQ. The answers are there - I just added one about the 'port' question, as it wasn't in the list.

I got the Wyrmnet client, but now when I try to connect, it says:

Unable to Connect to Host
This Attempt to connect was rejected.


?????

Probably the server isn't running. Try searching this forum for hints about why that might be.

You're sending me on a scavenger hunt now??

This is what's in the log/game.log, well and much more of the same garbage.:

[04/20 16:27:40] Setting ctype locale to English_Canada.1252
[04/20 16:27:40] Setting time locale to English_Canada.1252
[04/20 16:27:40] Failed to set messages locale from environment.
[04/20 16:27:40] Setting collate locale to English_Canada.1252
[04/20 16:27:40] PennMUSH version 1.7.5 patchlevel 5 [03/11/2002]
[04/20 16:27:40] MUSH restarted, PID -602201, at Sat Apr 20 16:27:40 2002

[04/20 16:27:40] Reading mush.cnf
[04/20 16:27:40] Can't open txt/help.txt for reading
[04/20 16:27:40] Can't open txt/news.txt for reading
[04/20 16:27:40] Can't open txt/help.txt for reading
[04/20 16:27:40] CONFIG: Invalid command or restriction for ahelp.

[04/20 16:27:40] Can't open txt/news.txt for reading
[04/20 16:27:40] CONFIG: Invalid command or restriction for anews.

[04/20 16:27:40] Reading alias.cnf
[04/20 16:27:40] Reading restrict.cnf
[04/20 16:27:40] CONFIG: directive 'exit_flags' missing from cnf file, using default value.
[04/20 16:27:40] Successfully copied executable, starting copy.
Redirecting output to: log\game.log
[04/20 16:27:40] Setting ctype locale to English_Canada.1252
[04/20 16:27:40] Setting time locale to English_Canada.1252
[04/20 16:27:40] Failed to set messages locale from environment.
[04/20 16:27:40] Setting collate locale to English_Canada.1252
[04/20 16:27:40] PennMUSH version 1.7.5 patchlevel 5 [03/11/2002]
[04/20 16:27:40] MUSH restarted, PID -717961, at Sat Apr 20 16:27:40 2002

[04/20 16:27:40] Reading mush.cnf
[04/20 16:27:40] Can't open txt/help.txt for reading
[04/20 16:27:40] Can't open txt/news.txt for reading
[04/20 16:27:40] Can't open txt/help.txt for reading
[04/20 16:27:40] CONFIG: Invalid command or restriction for ahelp.

For some reason it sounds bad.

The last bit of the log should look like this:


[04/19 10:25:29] File "data/indb" found, size 760 bytes, modified on 25 Mar 2002 01:59:52
[04/19 10:25:29] File "data/outdb" not found.
[04/19 10:25:29] File "data/PANIC.db" not found.
[04/19 10:25:29] Verifying selected database.
[04/19 10:25:29] File "data/indb" found, size 760 bytes, modified on 25 Mar 2002 01:59:52
[04/19 10:25:29] Input database verified. Proceeding to analysis.
[04/19 10:25:29] ANALYZING: data/indb
[04/19 10:25:29] ANALYZING: data/indb (done)
[04/19 10:25:29] LOADING: data/indb
[04/19 10:25:29] READING: done
[04/19 10:25:29] LOADING: data/indb (done)
[04/19 10:25:29] RPT: No access.cnf file found.
Listening on port 4201 using IPv4.
[04/19 10:25:29] 236 file descriptors available.
[04/19 10:25:29] RESTART FINISHED.


It should work, it worked for me under Windows 98, just make sure you follow all the steps.

That's what it says, yet it still doesn't work.

I've never used Wyrmnet client. Try telnet. Like, open a command window, and type:

telnet localhost 4201

What do you mean by command window?

Start Menu -> Programs -> MSDOS prompt

Could not open a connection to localhost.

No idea. It worked when I did it. "Could not open a connection" suggests the server is not up. When you run the server you should see a message like "redirecting output to log/game.log". Does that just stay there? I don't suppose you ctrl+c that window or anything?

It's alwys the pleasent could not open connection. Frankly, I'm a little miffed, considering I followed everything you said to the letter.

I'm not sure what you want me to do about it, as I tried the exact file I suggested on the same operating system and it worked.

There are two things that could be wrong here:

1. The server didn't start up, or stay started up.
2. You are not connecting correctly with your client.

Based on your earlier questions "what is a client" and "what is a command window" I would guess you are not all that familiar with doing this, and thus you may be making some subtle mistake that isn't apparent in the posts here.

For example:

• pressing Ctrl+C in the "server" window (or closing it in some way) so that the server stops running).
• mis-typing the address for "localhost" or "4201" - there are "L"s, ones, zeros, and "oh"s in there. You have to get them all right.

What I suggest is getting around a friend who is familiar with computers and networking, who can check where the problem is.

For example, you could try opening a command window, and typing "netstat -a", to see if the server is up, and listening for connections. When I did that I saw this ...



My PC is called "games". Note the entry for port 4201 that is "listening" - ie. waiting for a connection.

I did that netstat -a command, and the text you showed never came up, looking over it carefully I noticed that it also never displayed the number 4201...

You can email me a copy of the game.log file if you like - I'll see if I can spot something.

It's in the mail, hopefully you'll be able to find out what the problem is.

Ok, when I startup pennmush.exe it says:
Redirecting output to: log\game.log

Then with pennmush.exe open, I try to login with Wyrmnet (the client I choose now there's a completely new message:

Unable to Connect to Host.
The attempt to connect was rejected.

Any thoughts?

*does happy dance* Got it working!!

How? Just for the benefit of others...

Well, I got it to work, and I didn't. My computer broke so I had to switch to my older one, which I'm using now, without any trouble it works fine on this one. So I really didn't get it to work.