Hello everyone, LinuxGSM continues to grow and improve all the time.

Over the past few months, I have seen steady growth in engagement from people both trying out LinuxGSM for the first time and existing users helping out on discord.

Looking at the stats it appears that there has been a sharp uptake of Rust servers meaning it is now the #1 most popular game server on LinuxGSM, overtaking ARK and CS:GO. All stats can be viewed on the website.

With the recent addition of discussions to GitHub I decided to lock both the forum and the steam group in favour of keeping things together on GitHub rather than using several services. So if you have any non-development related questions please check out discussions (or discord).

This release sees some awesome new features and 3 game servers added, Vintage Story, Colony Survival and SCP: Secret Laboratory. New secret configs that allow you to separate and exclude sensitive info from other configs. check-update command that will simply inform you that an update is available and not apply the update. This is useful for some servers that have to wait for mods before updating.

An annoyance within LinuxGSM configs that meant the start parameters were kept in a function fn_parms has now been resolved. You will now see start parameters within _default.cfg simply listed as startparameters="". Backwards compatibility should mean custom settings should continue to work. Work also continues to migrate settings into _default.cfg making it easier to release new game servers.

There are plenty of bug fixes as well, with a big fix for Minecraft users allowing java ram to be correctly allocated. Rust users have further fixes applied to the wipe command.

For the full list of changes please check out the changelog below.

GitHub sponsors matching has now ended so I wanted to thank everyone who has (and continues) sponsored me over the past year (especially as it has been tough year for many). All sponsors will be messaged soon about the general plans and direction for 2021.

If you are a fan of LinuxGSM and want to sponsor me please check out the sponsor page. If you use PayPal, people often leave me a message which I always enjoy reading. It is always great to hear how you are using LinuxGSM with your Clan or Community.

v21.1.0 (2021-01-27)

? New Features

• config: add secrets config to store sensitive settings (#3080) by @dgibbs64
• newserver: Colony Survival (#3075) by @h3o66
• skeleton: New command skeleton (#3152) by @dgibbs64
• check-update: add new command check-update for steamcmd game servers (#3146) by @h3o66
• refactor check_config removing some game specific code (#3160) by @dgibbs64
• newserver: Vintage Story (#3156) by @h3o66
• newserver: SCP: Secret Laboratory (#3163) by @h3o66
• dev: add libc++.so.1 for dependency detection (#3181) by @h3o66
• steamcmd: set platformtype for steamcmd in the default config for the game server (#3167) by @h3o66
• improved start parameters system (#3151) by @h3o66
• arma3: change binary to 64bit by @h3o66

? Bug Fixes

• stop: stop will clear tmux text before entering stop command (#3142) by @unknowntrojan
• update: redo steamcmd update part for new behavoir (#3139) by @h3o66
• bmdm: add missing dependency ncurses libs (#3138) by @h3o66
• minecraft: fix java ram assignment (#3147) by @h3o66
• steamcmd: retries are not honoured if install succeeds (#3155)
• gmod: update link for wiki page (#3165) by @h3o66
• steamcmd: fix branch switch (#3168) by @h3o66
• rust: server config text change for rcon (#3175) by @h3o66
• steamcmd: remove unused parameter (#3170) by @h3o66
• rust: wipe command does not wipe all sav files (#3183) by @h3o66
• pvr: add new dependency (#3180) by @h3o66
• inss: fix config to only use parameter (#3179) by @h3o66
• steamcmd: fix update on start not starting the server (#3169) by @h3o66
• steamcmd: add dependency SDL 32bit for debian and ubuntu (#3186) by @h3o66
• stop: change csgoserver stop mode (#3171) by @h3o66
• ut2k4server: better parsing of the serverconfig (#3192) by @h3o66
• wipe: resolve random seed not working (#3190) by @h3o66
• core: add new functions for github releases (#3164) by @h3o66
• alert: cleanup and remove unused variables (#3195) by @h3o66
• backup: fix backup not correctly exiting on cancelling backup (#3197) vt @dgibbs64
• standardise and refactor comment headers (#3198) by @dgibbs64
• install: fix menu missing first server off list (#3196) by @dgibbs64
• review and tidy up of various _default.cfg files by @dgibbs64
• update: non-steam updates to not always require restarting if stopped by @dgibbs64

v20.6.2…v21.1.0

v20.6.0 (2020-12-04)

? New Features

• mods: add Stripper:Source to the modlist (#3070) (0ff4305) by Christian
• remove support for Serious Sam 3 and Goldeneye: Source (#3078) by Daniel Gibbs
• allow forks to use master branch (#3073) (a75ce42) by Max Vaessen
• new server: pvrserver (#2384) by Christian
• mods: metamod/amxmodx for goldsrc engines (#3104) by tkrn
• ut99server: update UT99 to version 469a (OldUnreal patch) (#3110) by Daniel Gibbs
• mcserver: select Minecraft release or snapshot (#3114) by Josh Bryans
• add version and port details to lockfile (0b38915) by Daniel Gibbs

? Bug Fixes

• details: Barotrauma will show as needing to be edited in game config (#3085) (5d7ff92) by Christian
• btserver: add dependency check for libicu (#3083) by Christian
• bf1942: add missing dependency to checks for libncurses5:i386 (#3098) (e8a7118) by Christian
• bf1942: servername parsing (#3096) (bb78ee3) by Christian
• deps: change ubuntu 20.10 to use lib32gcc-s1 (#3094) by Christian
• add connect timeout to core curl functions (#3117) (269bf6e) by Christian
• samp: fix config change after installation (#3119) by Christian

v20.5.1…v20.6.0

As a thank you to existing sponsors and to encourage new sponsors for the month of June anyone who sponsors $10 or above on GitHub sponsors will receive a £10 ($12.20 approx) steam gift card.

Update: Since this has been quite popular I am adding another gift card amount to help out with the upcoming summer sale, anyone who sponsors $25 or more will receive a £25 ($30.50 approx) gift card.

The Details

• Steam gift cards are in pound sterling as I am British. Steam will convert to your local currency.
• Anyone who is an existing or new GitHub sponsor in June will be able to claim a Steam Gift card.
• Gift cards will be sent out on the first week in July (around the steam summer sale time).

Patreon Sponsors

Any existing Patreon’s who want to claim a steam gift card should move to GitHub sponsors. This is because GitHub sponsors currently have a matching fund and no platform and payment fees meaning I currently receive 200% of your sponsorship.

If you move to GitHub sponsors your role will be removed from Discord. Simply mention me and I can re-apply it or you can remain on the $1 tier on Patreon or use Donate Bot.

Why are you doing this?

GitHub sponsors is a new sponsorship platform that does not have any platform fees and is currently matching any sponsors for the first year, so any donations made by you is matched by GitHub. Because of this, it allows me to give something back to sponsors in the form of steam gift cards.

How do I claim my Steam Gift Card?

Join the LinuxGSM discord and request the Sponsor role from @DanGibbs. Fill out a form that is available to sponsors on Discord in the channel #steam-gift. During the first week of July, I will add you do my friend’s list and send you the steam digital gift card.