Run a 24/7 server on a Raspberry Pi

A Raspberry Pi uses little power and can host your world day and night. You will install the ARM build, start it on boot and keep nightly backups.

What you need

• A Raspberry Pi with Raspberry Pi OS (or another Linux), connected to your network
• A terminal on the Pi (directly or over SSH)
• The command-line server from the releases page

1. Check 32-bit or 64-bit

Use the aarch64 build on a 64-bit OS and the armv7 build on a 32-bit OS. This command tells you which you have:

uname -m
# aarch64 = 64-bit, armv7l = 32-bit

2. Download and unpack

These commands use version 0.1.1 and the 64-bit build. Take the newest version from the releases page, and use armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf instead of aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu on a 32-bit OS.

curl -LO https://github.com/Blockheads-Club/blockheads-server/releases/download/v0.1.1/blockheads-server-v0.1.1-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
tar -xzf blockheads-server-v0.1.1-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
sudo mv blockheads-server-v0.1.1-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu /opt/blockheads-server

3. Create your world

Create the world once by hand. Worlds are saved in ~/GNUstep/Library/ApplicationSupport/TheBlockheads.

/opt/blockheads-server/blockheads_server --new MYWORLD
# wait for "World load complete.", then type:
/stop

TIP

Without options, the server loads the most recent world. The service below uses that.

4. Start it on every boot

Create a systemd service. Replace pi with your user name — the one that created the world.

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/blockheads.service <<'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Blockheads server
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=pi
ExecStart=/opt/blockheads-server/blockheads_server
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
sudo systemctl enable --now blockheads
journalctl -u blockheads -f

TIP

The service has no console. Give commands as an admin in the game chat (see Admins, mods and bans), and watch the log with journalctl.

5. Keep nightly backups

Copy the world folder only while the server is stopped. This root cron job stops the server at 04:00, packs everything into a dated .tar.gz and starts it again. Replace /home/pi with your home folder.

sudo crontab -e
# add this line (one line): every night at 04:00
0 4 * * * systemctl stop blockheads && tar -czf /home/pi/bh-backup-$(date +\%F).tar.gz -C /home/pi/GNUstep/Library/ApplicationSupport TheBlockheads; systemctl start blockheads

WARNING

systemctl stop ends the server without a final save. The server saves regularly, but the last few seconds can be lost — pick a quiet time.

If something goes wrong

• “Exec format error” — wrong build. Check uname -m again.
• Friends can’t connect — the same checks as in Play with friends on the same Wi-Fi.
• Still stuck? Open an issue on GitHub with the journalctl output.