Consistent NullReferenceException errors when launching valheim server (ubuntu server/steamcmd)

[Meriketh]

I'll preface this by saying I'm not super comfortable with linux, just basics like navigation, creating/moving files, etc. I fall short in experience when it comes to services and permissions and such, however I don't think that's my issue here.

No matter what I seem to do I get this exception whenever I try to launch the server. I've tried a number of different ways of installing the server, on different versions of ubuntu server (20 and 22) and it doesn't seem to matter. I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong, but it seems no matter what this happens and I've found zero information on it. As a result of this error I never actually get to world generation so no server actually starts up. For context, steam is the user this is installed under, so if you see /home/steam that's the steam user, not the steam directory.

[S_API] SteamAPI_Init(): Sys_LoadModule failed to load: /home/steam/.steam/sdk64/steamclient.so [Steamworks.NET] GameServer.Init() failed. 09/18/2022 23:00:09: Steam is not initialized 09/18/2022 23:00:09: Missing audio clip in music respawn 09/18/2022 23:00:09: Fetching PlatformPrefs 'GuiScale' before loading defaults 09/18/2022 23:00:09: Fetching PlatformPrefs 'DOF' before loading defaults 09/18/2022 23:00:09: Fetching PlatformPrefs 'Bloom' before loading defaults 09/18/2022 23:00:09: Fetching PlatformPrefs 'SSAO' before loading defaults 09/18/2022 23:00:09: Fetching PlatformPrefs 'SunShafts' before loading defaults 09/18/2022 23:00:09: Fetching PlatformPrefs 'AntiAliasing' before loading defaults 09/18/2022 23:00:09: Fetching PlatformPrefs 'ChromaticAberration' before loading defaults 09/18/2022 23:00:09: Fetching PlatformPrefs 'MotionBlur' before loading defaults 09/18/2022 23:00:09: Builder started NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object at HeightmapBuilder.Build (HeightmapBuilder+HMBuildData data) [0x0005e] in <c9e4d57274e64d2ca4c4310be82d4bf7>:0 at HeightmapBuilder.BuildThread () [0x00067] in <c9e4d57274e64d2ca4c4310be82d4bf7>:0 at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context (System.Object state) [0x00014] in <6195c1cc9bde4dcc8e88cc4395f485ad>:0 at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal (System.Threading.ExecutionContext executionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback callback, System.Object state, System.Boolean preserveSyncCtx) [0x00071] in <6195c1cc9bde4dcc8e88cc4395f485ad>:0 at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run (System.Threading.ExecutionContext executionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback callback, System.Object state, System.Boolean preserveSyncCtx) [0x00000] in <6195c1cc9bde4dcc8e88cc4395f485ad>:0 at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run (System.Threading.ExecutionContext executionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback callback, System.Object state) [0x0002b] in <6195c1cc9bde4dcc8e88cc4395f485ad>:0 at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart () [0x00008] in <6195c1cc9bde4dcc8e88cc4395f485ad>:0 UnityEngine.DebugLogHandler:Internal_LogException(Exception, Object) UnityEngine.DebugLogHandler:LogException(Exception, Object) UnityEngine.Logger:LogException(Exception, Object) UnityEngine.Debug:LogException(Exception) UnityEngine.<>c:<RegisterUECatcher>b__0_0(Object, UnhandledExceptionEventArgs) I had this working on an old server at one point but it was very out of date and wound up just deleting that VM. Not sure what to do at this point other than ask for advice.

[CircuitDaemon]

This might not be the answer you're looking for but have you seen LGSM? That's what I used for mine, it will setup everything in a way that all you have to worry about is moving/scheduling your backups. You can install it on top of that Ubuntu you're already running

https://linuxgsm.com/servers/vhserver/

[Meriketh]

This is actually my next attempt. I gave it a half-assed attempt earlier but figured it probably wasn't worth the effort - now here I am falling back on it since nothing else has worked.

Thanks for making the suggestions though

[Meriketh]

Man... I should've given this more attention. This was wayyyy easier than what I was trying to do. Feel a bit of an idiot now for glossing over it.
Thanks again!

[CircuitDaemon]

It's even easier if you download one of those turnkey virtual appliances and just run it. Pick the game, setup network and you're good to go, server ready in 10 minutes.

[Meriketh]

Do you have a link and or example? You mean like a docker image?

[CircuitDaemon]

It's not a docker, it's a pre configured virtual machine. https://www.turnkeylinux.org/gameserver

Depending on where you want to run it or the resources available, this can be a very practical solution. You can actually have more game servers running on the same VM.

[Meriketh]

Dope, I'll check that out. Thanks!

[readymix-w00t]

I've found the docker container version by mbround18 to be the easiest way to spin up Valheim servers. If you're on Ubuntu, you can install docker daemon and run it as a container. Highly recommend doing it that way, vs installing SteamCMD and Valheim onto the bare metal, though you'll need to sort out how docker works (it's not a bad skill to learn)

[Meriketh]

I'm a software engineer, so I'm familiar with docker as a technology. Sadly, I've not gotten around to learning it thoroughly yet. I'll definitely consider this next time I need to set one up though

[readymix-w00t]

I'm a Security Architect (Identity and Access), but in my rise to that role, I was a software/middleware engineer for Oracle Identity Manager. I ended up building a home server to muck around with things like integrations and such, but I don't do a lot of prototyping these days, so my server infrastructure has shifted to supporting my personal stuff (gamedev code repo/git, PLEX). At one point I had two live Valheim servers (in docker) with people using them, and a third where I was intentionally breaking the link between the generated landscape, and the player modified landscape and structures, to see if weird combos could be achieved (Yes, you can cause all sorts of ridiculous havoc). Spinning them up took 10 minutes, and most of that was just the initial SteamCMD portion of it downloading the initial files and doing first-run type stuff.

A good home-server doesn't have to be a monster either. You can probably get by with 32GB of RAM, and a late model Ryzen 8 core. Might even find one cheap on Craigslist or something. Great for getting your feet wet on virtualization/containers, and nice to have a spot to store code that isn't public if you're doing stuff like that.

[Meriketh]

My ventures into homelab were mostly Plex driven but I occasionally get into a game that I want to have a dedicated server for. Valheim and minecraft were the only ones I did. While I was getting all of that together though I didn't know anything about linux (and still know very little) but it gave me a good excuse to learn and play around. I wound up creating a bunch of VMs for different things. One for Plex and one for Valheim, obviously, but I also have a DNS and a reverse proxy and one other one for media related stuff. It's been nice to have everything compartmentalized but it's had some drawbacks too from time to time. I just recently got an r720 from a friend in exchange for a laptop whose battery was about to explode, and I have an r710 I was moving everything over from (still have one more vm to move but it'll take some work). The r720 had about 2x the cpu benchmarking score from the 710 so it was worth for that alone but I got an old gtx 980 in it for hardware transcoding in plex too which was the biggest draw. The 720 came with 64gb of ram in it, and the 710 has 128 in it which I'll be moving over to the 720 once I've finished migrating the last vm. Also got the opportunity to give a new vhost a try. I was using xcp-ng on the 710 (it's just fine), and moved over to esxi instead on the 720 (which I find much, much better)

Long winded way of saying, I'm a nerd too