School Network Install

[jmoon224]

Hi,

Forgive me if this has already been asked but I can't find suitable documentation to explain the process.

I'm trying to get Minetest setup for a group of students to use in our ICT room at school (Windows 7 computers managed by a Windows Server 2012 R2)

What's the best way to go about installing it and using on LAN?

Do I just use the portable version, put it somewhere accessible on the server and create a shortcut for the student computers? Or is the installer version best? Is it necessary to install it on all of the client machines?

The main goal is for them all to collaborate on one server map and see what amazing structures they can build in creative mode.

I expect this will also lead on to some wanting to use the single player mode to create their own maps but presumably if all of the map files are kept in a folder on the Windows server, then all of the students will be able to access those single player maps at any time? And there appears to be no way of doing a 'Save As' once a map is loaded so any changes they make to someone else's map will remain. There's no way to password protect maps?

Thanks,
James.

[rubenwardy]

What's the best way to go about installing it and using on LAN?

Do I just use the portable version, put it somewhere accessible on the server and create a shortcut for the student computers? Or is the installer version best? Is it necessary to install it on all of the client machines?

The installer literally just copies the portable version into C://games/Minetest, and adds shortcuts.
(Source: I created the installer.)

You could make a portable version and create a shortcut. Be warned that the multiple clients editing the same configuration may be a bit weird - it's possible that when logging in, users will see the username of other people, although not their password.

To fix this, you could add a command line argument in the shortcut which pointed to a filename on the user's home directory. Eg:

minetest.exe --config path\\to\\file.conf

for example, this should work, but not tested:

minetest.exe --config "%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\\minetest\\minetest.conf"

I expect this will also lead on to some wanting to use the single player mode to create their own maps but presumably if all of the map files are kept in a folder on the Windows server, then all of the students will be able to access those single player maps at any time? And there appears to be no way of doing a 'Save As' once a map is loaded so any changes they make to someone else's map will remain. There's no way to password protect maps?

I don't know much about how you're sharing the files, but if they can read and write there as if it's a drive then it should work. You can't password protect files, all users will be able to see all worlds if they are in the same folder. If two players try and play the same world, they will cause corruption.
Note: "world" is our name for a save game.

Worlds are saved as they are edited, as they are stored in a mysql database. You could copy the folders to clone it, for example from minetest/worlds/world1 to minetest/worlds/world2 so that you now have two worlds which are separated.

For more info, see: http://wiki.minetest.net/Command_line

[twoelk]

The easiest way is probably to install a complete Windows Portable version for each pupil and one on the server. This way you only need one version of the installation file and need not worry about any read/write access conflicts or sort out who is allowed to acces which file.

The pupil versions actually even need not be installed on the pc's but could also reside on some portable device such as an usb-stick, sd-card or portable-HD. This way the pupils could take their versions home. Indeed so could the server version which thus could be equally worked on at some other pc or taken home to be prepared for the next lesson. For example the wiki-mod could be filled with content or some quests or problems could be prepared for the pupils to solve.

One machine will be chosen as a world-server and this one will host the active map and the sub-game (and / or mod selection) for that session. All other Minetest versions will only act as clients in that session and do not need anything extra such as mods, sub-games or worlds installed as all of this is solely provided, controlled and saved by the hosting server.

As can be concluded from the above, every Minetest installation can thus act as client or serve a world for others to join. Maps created as singleplayer could be showcased for others to explore. All that needed to be known is the IP-address and port of the hosting pc within the LAN-system.

If others from outside the LAN should be allowed to join then a port will have to be forwarded on the router or gateway or however the hosting system organises it's connection to the internet including possibly adding an exception to any security systems such as a firewall.


A scenario could be that a teacher sets up a world on the machine chosen as server and the others join from their sites. All the personall information such as changed keybindings or visited server addresses are saved locally within each clients installation. The teacher has full control over what happens on the map and how the game works as only the server executes the sub-game code. All what the clients do is render what the players see, they do not process any mod or sub-game code locally. Non of the sub-game or mod code used at school will be saved on the local client (textures, meshes, sounds and other media will be saved in the local cache of each client though).

After school the pupils take their installations of Minetest home on a USB-stick and at home start a singleplayer world and build something, providing they have a sub-game installed locally. Maybe they even collect some mods and create an own sub-game or code a mod. On the next meeting a pupil is chosen to serve his world for the others (including the teacher) from his installation on his portable device and as now his server provides all information the others can connect without having to install anything extra and review his or her creation. If the password setting is set in the config file of the hosting machine then the hosting player can decide wether to restrict interact or allow it for certain players.

For further information on other ideas of using Minetest at school you may want to consider studying the links collection at the bottom of this wiki page: http://wiki.minetest.net/Mods:Learning

[jmoon224]

Hi guys,

Thanks for clarifying. I like the idea of pupils keeping their own version on USB stick but with them being primary age (7-11) I don't think we can expect them all to have one and if the school bought them then I expect they would quickly get lost.

So I guess the second best option is to put the portable Minetest folder in each pupil's 'My Documents' folder. Is there a quick way to do this or do I just get pupils to copy it from a network drive themselves?

Going by twoelk's post, this would mean each student can load their own version of Minetest from their own folder. They can create their own single player maps but only they can access them, unless they decide to share the map as a server for their classmates to join. From a teacher point of view, I can setup a server for all of them to join in the school club from my own computer.

I'm assuming the game saves automatically after any change is made to the map, or every minute? So is there a way to roll back to a previous version if things go terribly wrong? I guess one way would be to create a copy of the map (called 'mapname-master') before letting students loose on the original copy.

If I want all of the maps I create and share as a LAN server to be played with the day cycle turned off, I just need to add the following line to my .conf file?

time_speed parameter-0

Also, thanks for the wiki page!

James.

[rubenwardy]

the line is:

time_speed = 0

in minetest.conf

You may also need to do /time 12:00 ingame to set it to midday.

[jmoon224]

Thanks Ruben.

Are you able to confirm/answer my other points?

[rubenwardy]

> Is there a quick way to do this or do I just get pupils to copy it from a network drive themselves?

I'm not sure. It's best to have them to just copy it.

> I'm assuming the game saves automatically after any change is made to the map, or every minute?

It depends on the sqlite settings. By default I think it commits the changes every 15 seconds, but I'm not sure.

> So is there a way to roll back to a previous version if things go terribly wrong? I

If you enable rollback, you can rollback all the map edits by a particular player. But that's slow, and it's way easier just to make copies/backups of the world folder.

[jmoon224]

Thanks again for your help.

We had our first school club using Minetest today. It went quite well but there are some problems which I'd really appreciate some help with-

1. There seems to be a limit of 15 players on the server map I set up. Is there a way to increase that? I had about 20 students in the club so some of them had to join a 2nd server or just use single player.

2. Is there a way to turn fire/lava off in Creative mode, or at least stop it from spreading? We had a couple of incidents with it getting too close to other students' buildings. I may just have to verbally ban the use of it.

3. As the teacher, how do I grant flying and no clip permissions to everyone at once? I was able to give it to individuals using /grant [pupil name] all but doing that for 15+ users takes too long and without flying it's very difficult to build.

Thanks,
James

[jmoon224]

I found the answer to number 1 in another thread.

I just need to find out about the other two points, particularly how to grant flying and no clip to all users at once.

[jmoon224]

I've done more digging in the forums and found that 'disable_fire = true' seems to stop the fire from spreading but doesn't disable it completely.

I think 'free_move = true' enables flying by default, so I'm hoping that works for all users who join the server.

Still not found a way to enable players to fly through walls by default. I tried 'noclip = true' but that didn't seem to make any difference in my singleplayer test.

Thanks,
James

[rubenwardy]

That won't give fly to new players. You'll need to do:

default_privs = interact, shout, fly, nonclip

To see the privs you have, type /privs
You can also do /privs username

[jmoon224]

'nonclip' or 'noclip'?

[rubenwardy]

noclip, I was typing on my phone.

[jmoon224]

I added default_privs = interact, shout, fly, noclip to the config file and tested it in singleplayer but I can't fly through objects. If I press H it says I don't have the privilege.

[rubenwardy]

It only works on new accounts. To give it to old accounts, type /grant username priv1,priv2,priv3