*** UPDATE: Fixed some typo’s in the commands ***

This is how to set up a CS:S server on Ubuntu Linux. This is not a definitive guide, it is simply how I have done it. I have omitted some security precautions here as my server will not be going live online, and is only used for testing things in-house.

NOTE: lines of text preceded with a # symbol should be entered into a terminal.

First of all, you are going to need the HLDS tool from Steam, this is what allows us to get all of the required game files and update the server etc…

# wget http://www.steampowered.com/download/hldsupdatetool.bin
# chmod +x hldsupdatetool.bin
# ./hldsupdatetool.bin
# ./steam

This will download the hlds tool, make it executable, extract the steam tool, and update the steam tool. We now have everything required to get ready to install. The next step is to create somewhere for the server to go, and get all of the required files.

# mkdir CSS1
# ./steam -command update -game “Counter-Strike Source” -dir ./CSS1

This will begin the download of your new CS:S server, this can take some time and varies greatly depending on your download speed. At this point, you can consider what addons and configuration you want to use on your server, a handy tool I came across for the configuration files is available here. Once your CS:S server has finished installing, you can launch it by doing the following…

# cd CSS1
# ./srcds_run -console -game cstrike +map cs_office +maxplayers 16 -tickrate 66 -autoupdate -ip 192.168.0.100

The above command assumes the following, you want to play cs_office with the possibility of hosting 16 players on a 66 tick server who’s IP is 192.168.0.100, adjust these values to suit your own requirements.

Congratulations, you should now have a working CS:S server, but its not much fun without some plugins, so we’re gonna grab and configure Mani Admin Plugin and Eventscripts to throw on there for some easy administration and fun games. This will be continued in part 2.