We are now Ready to begin!

3 min read
03 October 2022


Clara and I run Minecraft on our home FreeBSD server in a jail that keeps Java and other dependencies contained in one isolated place. Theoretically , you can run the server anywhere that supports Java as well as Linux and perhaps NetBSD although I haven't tested the latter.



I could not let it go! The positive side is that you can run a Minecraft server on your other preferred OS. This is how I did it. I'm sure there are other ways.



Getting Java installed



Once you've installed NetBSD, configured networking, and enabled pkgin, you must install an OpenJDK in order to run Minecraft.



Minecraft 1.17 and up requires OpenJDK 17 However, OpenJDK 16 is the latest in the most current snapshot as of July 2022. You can search to determine whether this is the case:



If it's not yet 16 You can pull the most recent packages by opening your repo file:



and changing the repo URL I changed mine from 9.0 to 9.0_current



This was a wonderful project. He is a huge advocate for NetBSD I feel that he owes me at least an espresso or a beer every time I go to Japan.



We are now able to install along with other useful tools.



Running Minecraft



From here it is possible to run Minecraft is basically the same as any Java-enabled server. I have all my files in one place:



Then log in as my local user and then start:



We're ready to start!
Minecraft servers



Java will throw an exception about a system that isn't supported, something that NetBSD users know well. Based on my tests it's safe to ignore it:



After you've run the server for the first time, don't forget to accept the EULA.



The creation of an introductory script



I like to link to minecraft.jar the most current version of the server



Then, you can reference it in launch.sh using tmux to keep the server after disconnecting. I also would like to give Minecraft more memory:



We're ready to go!



Follow-up



My next step would be creating an appropriate chroot environment to work with Java and Minecraft similar to what I have done with FreeBSD jails. I have an NetBSD chroot exploration guide that I have been working on for many years. I will clean it up and post it in the near future.

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Dunlap Kragh 0
Joined: 1 year ago
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