FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

I can't seem to be able to connect to any Minetest servers. I've been trying servers from a few different lists over the past couple weeks.

I should mention that my siblings use my computer for the other game, Minecraft. They have no trouble connecting to servers, so there's nothing wrong with my computer or internet connection.

Is there some sort of port forwarding or other shenanigans I have to pull in Minetest, but not Minecraft, to make this work?

Thanks for the advice!

Uhm i think it could be either a firewall problem or maybe you are using a version of the game that's not compatible with the server.

Does it say anything when you try to connect?
I.e. PROTOCOL VERSION NOT SUPPORTED

Or does it just keep loading forever?

It says it's "Connecting to server ..." and counts down from ten, and then says "Connection timed out."

How would I go about finding out what version of the game I have installed?

Thanks!

What is the name of the folder you downloaded? I think you have 0.3.1, which is not compatible with 0.4

I didn't download a folder. I used Linux Mint's Software Installer, and told it to install Minetest. It wouldn't surprise me if it's out of date though. The version of PlayOnLinux it installs is also out of date.

Checking .... Yes, it looks like the installer is using 0.3.1.

I'll try manually updating it. Thanks you!

No problem. Have fun!

Well that was mildly amusing. The 0.3.1 package I had was called "minetest", but the new version is called "minetestc55". So instead of the computer treating it as an upgrade, it treated it as a separate application. However, it refused to install it, because installing it required overwriting the old files, which were still in use by the original version. Uninstalling the original version fixed the problem.

Now I get a different "Connecting to server (press Escape to cancel) /-\" message, but it doesn't seem to connect. I downloaded the latest version, and I'm attempting to connect to servers that are labeled as running the latest version. Is there something else I need to do to set this up?

Thanks!

If you're on Ubuntu/Mint, there are PPAs for daily unstable builds and stable builds. The stable ones should be new enough.

Yeah, that's what I downloaded. The latest stable build from that page. It still doesn't connect.

You can try my gitinstall script to obtain the latest latest version ;).
http://minetest.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2860

It depends on git, cmake and build-essentials ;).

0gb.us wrote:Yeah, that's what I downloaded. The latest stable build from that page. It still doesn't connect.

I use Lubuntu (11.10). I prefer to download/compile Minetest as described in the readme.txt under "Compiling on GNU/Linux:" You find it when scrolling down on this page:

https://github.com/celeron55/minetest (minetest.net, Github)

I know it's 0.4.3 and not the 'stable' 0.4.1 but in my own experience, the newer unstables run smoother than the stables. And some (Half, didn't check) most of the time update to the latest unstable.

Good luck!

P.s. If you didn't find it yourself, one of the server lists: http://servers.minetest.ru/

Topywo wrote:I prefer to download/compile Minetest as described in the readme.txt under "Compiling on GNU/Linux:" You find it when scrolling down on this page:
https://github.com/celeron55/minetest (minetest.net, Github)

That's exactly what my script does.

Phitherek_ wrote:

Topywo wrote:I prefer to download/compile Minetest as described in the readme.txt under "Compiling on GNU/Linux:" You find it when scrolling down on this page:
https://github.com/celeron55/minetest (minetest.net, Github)

That's exactly what my script does.

Great! I saw it after typing. I'll try out your script for the next version (actually both of them :-) )

When I ran the update script, it told me:

fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
/home/us_0gb/Desktop/Unsaved Document 1: line 3: cd: games/minetest: No such file or directory
fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
cat: check: No such file or directory
CMake Error: The source directory "/" does not appear to contain CMakeLists.txt.
Specify --help for usage, or press the help button on the CMake GUI.
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
rm: cannot remove `check': No such file or directory
chmod: cannot access `minetest': No such file or directory
/home/us_0gb/Desktop/Unsaved Document 1: line 16: cd: minetest: No such file or directory
Minetest updated!

I took a look at the file, and the specified path is relative, making it dependent on the directory it's run from. What directory are you expecting it to be run from? It looks like the git command is failing too, but since I've never used git, I don't know what sort of problem to look for.

Thanks!

You need to clone the main Minetst repo with git:

This creates a folder "minetest". Go into this folder and run the script there.

Now I feel like an idiot.

The page with the source code was loading painfully slowly, so while I was waiting, I went back and reread the posts in this thread to see if I had missed anything. Topywo mentioned a server list, so I decided to check it out. The first server rejected me, because my client was to new, not old, but I got into the second with no difficulty. Apparently, the server lists I was using are outdated or invalid, or something.

Thank you all for your support and help!

0gb.us wrote:When I ran the update script, it told me:

fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
/home/us_0gb/Desktop/Unsaved Document 1: line 3: cd: games/minetest: No such file or directory
fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
cat: check: No such file or directory
CMake Error: The source directory "/" does not appear to contain CMakeLists.txt.
Specify --help for usage, or press the help button on the CMake GUI.
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
rm: cannot remove `check': No such file or directory
chmod: cannot access `minetest': No such file or directory
/home/us_0gb/Desktop/Unsaved Document 1: line 16: cd: minetest: No such file or directory
Minetest updated!

I took a look at the file, and the specified path is relative, making it dependent on the directory it's run from. What directory are you expecting it to be run from? It looks like the git command is failing too, but since I've never used git, I don't know what sort of problem to look for.

Thanks!

You cannot update an existing installation from the package. You must first run gitinstall script and then there use the gitupdate one.