Troubleshooting Servers

Troubleshooting

To run the server without outputting the heartbeat:

./PavlovServer.sh | sed '/heartbeat/d'

To monitor the logs (without heartbeat) from another terminal:

tail -f -n10000 /home/steam/pavlovserver/Pavlov/Saved/Logs/Pavlov.log | grep -v 'Sending heartbeat to masterserver'

Check your CPU Clock Speed with:

lscpu | grep MHz

Server won't start

Error message:

ln: failed to create hard link '/home/steam/.steam/sdk64/steamclient.so': File exists
ln: failed to create hard link '/home/steam/pavlovserver/Pavlov/Binaries/Linux/steamclient.so': File exists
/home/steam/pavlovserver/Pavlov/Binaries/Linux/PavlovServer: error while loading shared libraries: libc++.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

First two errors are harmless. The third one is because libc++ step was skipped or failed. Using sudo capable id (probably not steam id), [re]run this line:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y gdb curl lib32gcc1 libc++-dev unzip

Map wont load (kicks to datacenter)

try deleting all the downloaded workshop maps with:

sudo rm -rf /tmp/workshop/7777/content/555160/*

for all maps or

sudo rm -rf /tmp/workshop/7777/content/555160/whatever-UGC

for specific map

Map wont load when running in a container

The three typical container problems I have seen:

1) Steam can't write to /tmp for some reason

2) /tmp is actually tmpfs instead of real filesystem and a few gigs of maps runs you out of RAM

3) Made worse by fact that pavlovserver unpacks downloads to ram, then writes to /tmp/workshop. Not enough RAM to do this, no map for you.

Server stuck rotating forever

Run these 2 commands, then restart your server:

cd ~/Steam && ./steamcmd.sh +login anonymous +app_update 1007 +quit
cp ~/Steam/steamapps/common/Steamworks\ SDK\ Redist/linux64/steamclient.so ~/.steam/sdk64/steamclient.so

If this doesn't fix it, double check that your server isn't running on the same port as another, by running this command:

ps -ef | grep pav

Then if 2 servers are on the same port, you can fix it by editing the pavlovserver.service file, and making sure the following line:

ExecStart=/home/steam/pavlovserver/PavlovServer.sh -PORT=Number

has a unique number after the port for each server you're running.

Server - ping 999

Google Cloud Platform - Make sure your compute engine has a network tag and your network rules are applied to the tag. Make sure you opened the specified ports.

Network testing tools: Test if your server will respond to ping from outside your network: https://www.wormly.com/test-remote-ping

even if you think u did it all right it is more often than not port related .. using a free tool like this one https://portchecker.co/ check the appropriate ports for what your experiencing if the server is showing in game but has a ping of 999 that is more than likely a port problem so you would check the default ports for the server (unless u changed them) 7777, 8177 are the default ports both need to show as open . if u cannot connect to RCON check the port you set in the RconSettings.txt the default is 9100

Can't connect to RCON

Check the file and group owner of RconSettings file. It should be steam, or the ID used to run the pavlov server.

cd /home/steam/pavlovserver/Pavlov/Saved/Config 
ls -la

If the owner/group are not steam, using root or an id with sudo authority, change them to steam, confirm they are now set properly, then restart the pavlov server. (Note - if Rcon has wrong permissions, after fixing you should also to check the other config files like Game.ini, mods/blacklist/whitelist for the same issue. If steam can't access these files, it could cause problems.).

cd /home/steam/pavlovserver/Pavlov/Saved/Config
sudo chown steam RconSettings.txt
sudo chgrp steam RconSettings.txt
ls -la

PC ONLY - Map Download stops

When downloading a large map from the steam workshop make sure your VPS/Dedi or Shared hosting provider (Otherwise known as a GSP's) has enough RAM assigned to store the map files in its tempfs (stored in ram)!

This is less likely to happen on Dedicated servers and VPS with a decent amount of ram unless you are using docker with RAM limits!

Most GSP's will be using docker or some other type of jailing method to limit system resource allocations and direct access to the host machine, if they are and you know what map you want to use make sure you order a service with enough ram to store your map. If in doubt contact your GSP's support team.

Getting Help

There's a #pc-custom-servers channel on the official Pavlov Discord - https://discord.gg/Pavlov-VR. Lots of helpful people there!

Troubleshooting Servers

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