Minecraft on RACHEL?

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#1

Is it possible to get a local version of Minecraft on a RACHEL server? I think this would be a neat way for the kids to connect and play together while developing their reading and math skills.

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#2

I prefer the open source MineTest which I put on Internet in a Box.

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#3

Thank you Timm! I was not aware of Minetest. Would that work on the Rachel server? Do you know if the kids could interact with each other simultaneously?

#4

I think with the Raspberry Pi Minecraft servers are a common project. The server would run on the RACHEL-Pi and then anyone connected to it would be able to access the server and play together. They would have to run it on their own devices though. This article talks about it a bit. If that’s what you’re looking for I can look at getting it working.

#5

Yeah that is what I am looking for! Thank you! The students will have access to a computer and will be connected to the RACHEL server via their WiFi connection. Is there something else they would need?
I think something like this would really help get the students engaged in the computers and wanting to learn how they work. Minecraft has so many possibilities.

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#6

This will require an installation script and maybe custom module or something to turn the server on and off. I am working on new RACHEL-Pi images right now so once those are out I will look at it and see how it goes.

James

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#7

@jamesk looking forward to new images, thanks James

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#8

I was hoping to upload last week so I could move on to fun stuff like this, but I keep running into issues with Raspbian Buster. I’m trying to maintain support for the Raspberry Pi 2B but the system crashes when anyone connects to the hotspot when using the edimax USB wifi adapter. I might drop 2B support for now and release new images when that is fixed and Pi4 USB booting is added.

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#9

So I took a look at this again and to automatically build minecraft and install it using a script on an existing RACHEL-Pi won’t work because it needs more memory than is available. I can build it separately on another system and add it to a RACHEL-Pi image after, but I’m not sure on the legality of releasing an image with it with the license provided for Minecraft. It also makes you accept a EULA by editing a file when you first run it and I’m not sure if I’m allowed to automatically accept that EULA for others. I have no idea when it comes to licensing stuff so maybe someone who knows can chime in.

I will look at adding Minetest which @timm suggested.

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#10

Hello @brettp,

I’ve created an installer that installs minetest-server and an en-minetest module on the RACHEL-Pi. Currently the version Raspbian has is 4.17 which is a bit older. Users need to connect using a version 4 game on their system. Here are the instructions for installing it.

  1. Download minetest-install_12_11_2019.zip
  2. Unzip it and place the minetest-install folder in /var/tmp on your RACHEL-Pi
  3. Log into your pi using putty over SSH or hook it up to a keyboard/monitor
  4. Run cd /var/tmp/minetest-install
  5. Run sudo bash minetest-install
  6. Select Update and hit enter to update the system
  7. Reboot when prompted. ( it may work without rebooting if you try )
  8. Run sudo bash minetest-install again, select Install and hit enter to begin the installation
  9. When it’s done the server should be running and the module should be installed. You can now exit the installer.

To play the game do the following

  1. Download 4.17 of Minetest on a computer. I downloaded one from this post which worked for me on Windows 10. if you want to install the Minetest game on Raspbian for players I believe you can just do “sudo apt-get install minetest”.
  2. Connect to the RACHEL-Pi hotspot
  3. Run Minetest and select Play Online
  4. Enter 10.10.10.10 for the address and 30000 for the port
  5. Enter a username and password then connect
  6. When you join the server it will ask for the password so enter it again. This registers that name so you’ll want to remember it.
  7. That’s it. You should be connected and playing. It’s actually a lot of fun!

Since this isn’t integrated fully into RACHEL yet, I have also created a little utility to start/stop/restart the server. It’s included and called minetest-config.

  1. Place the minetest-config file anywhere. ie: /var/tmp
  2. Run cd /var/tmp
  3. Run sudo minetest-config
  4. You should see a menu with options to start/stop/restart the server.

The latest Minetest version is 5.1 or 5.2 but needs to be built manually. I have automated the process for building 5.1 but it doesn’t install system wide as a service when built so I need to do some more work on that. For now this will install the latest Raspbian has. In the future I will come up with a better way to download/install things like this without having to make unique images for each, but for now this should work. I will also work on the module to provide more info and maybe downloads for different operating systems in the future. Right now it just lets you know what IP/Port to connect to. You can also connect to it over lan with the LAN IP address if you are not using wifi but it’s connected to your router.

Let me know how this goes!

James

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