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Dedicated Server (Linux)

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mcoms edited this page Apr 12, 2026 · 20 revisions

Headless Dedicated Server

You can install TC2 on a VPS or server rack and run it as a Source dedicated server.

  1. Create a TC2 folder with mkdir -p $HOME/bin/tc2server

  2. Get a ZIP of the game onto your server, and extract it into this new folder. Additional instructions:

    1. cd $HOME/bin/tc2server
    2. Transfer/download the ZIP, using rsync or scp to transfer, or wget or curl to download, or some other method. For example: wget https://github.com/mastercomfig/tc2/releases/latest/download/game-linux.zip -O game.zip
    3. sudo apt install 7zip
    4. 7z x game.zip
    5. rm game.zip

  3. Install SteamCMD.

  4. Install Steam Linux Runtime 3.0 (SLR3). Run steamcmd +force_install_dir ./SteamLinuxRuntime_sniper +login anonymous +app_update 1628350 validate +quit or define $SLR_SNIPER_PATH to the run command path for SLR3. For container setups, you'll want to use the SLR platform image.

  5. Install TF2 Dedicated Server. Run steamcmd +force_install_dir ./tf2 +login anonymous +app_update 232250 validate +quit . You can skip this step if you already have it installed.

  6. In the bin/ folder, run ln -s $HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamcmd/tf2 ./tf2ds

    1. Note: depending on your distro, you may have to run ln -s $HOME/.local/share/Steam/tf2 ./tf2ds instead

  7. In the bin/ folder, run ln -s ./tf2ds ./tf2

    1. Pro tip: tf2ds/ is used for dedicated server binaries, and tf2/ is used for HL2/TF2 assets (VPKs). Since we can get both from one app, we link them together. But if you have another setup, you can link them to the corresponding folders that you have.

  8. Run mkdir -p $HOME/.steam/sdk64

  9. Run ln -s $HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamcmd/linux64/steamclient.so $HOME/.steam/sdk64/steamclient.so

  10. In the tc2server/ folder, run ./start_dedicated_tc2.sh -nosteamclient

May need to set the following:

sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_unconfined=0
sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0

Sometimes servers will get stuck in a state where they cannot start and will crash loop. In this case, launch without the -nosteamclient parameter once, wait for it to fail and exit, and then launch normally again.

Desktop Dedicated Server

On a normal desktop that runs a graphical session with Steam, you can also run a dedicated server easily.

  1. Open Steam.
  2. In Steam, install Team Fortress 2.
  3. In Steam, install Source SDK Base 2013 Dedicated Server.
  4. In Steam, install Steam Linux Runtime 3.0.
  5. Install Team Comtress 2 normally through the launcher.
  6. In the folder above tc2/ (the top-level one, not the one inside tc2/), link Source SDK Base 2013 Dedicated Server to tf2ds/ and link Team Fortress 2 to tf2/.
  7. In tc2/, run ./start_dedicated_tc2.sh
  8. Steam must be running for this to work, as dependencies are checked through Steam.

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