LinuxGSM Complete Guide

LinuxGSM is the fastest way to turn a fresh Linux VPS into a running game server. One command installs the server. One command starts it. One command updates it. This guide covers the full workflow from fresh Ubuntu install to a running server with automatic updates, monitoring, and systemd auto-start — with real working examples for Rust, Counter-Strike 2, Minecraft, TF2, and Valheim.

01 // What is LinuxGSM?

LinuxGSM (Linux Game Server Manager) is a free, open-source bash-based command-line tool that installs, updates, and manages dedicated game servers on Linux. It was created by Daniel Gibbs in 2012 and has become the most widely-used tool for self-hosted game servers — with over 15,000 GitHub stars and support for more than 100 games.

Unlike heavy web panels like Pterodactyl or AMP, LinuxGSM is just a set of bash scripts. There is no web UI, no database, no daemon process — just one script per game server. That minimalism is its biggest strength: it is fast, lightweight, easy to debug, and works on almost any Linux distribution with zero configuration overhead.

Key features

• 100+ supported games — Source engine (CS2, TF2, GMod, L4D2), Valve dedicated (Rust, 7DTD, Valheim), ARK, Minecraft Java/Bedrock, Unturned, Factorio, Terraria, Squad, Project Zomboid, Palworld, and many more
• One-command install — ./server auto-install fetches the game files via SteamCMD and configures everything
• Built-in monitoring — ./server monitor detects crashes and auto-restarts; integrates with Discord, Slack, email, Telegram, Pushbullet, Pushover, and more
• Alerts via webhooks — Get notified when your server crashes, updates, or misses its heartbeat
• Config file generation — Auto-generates sane default configs for CS2, TF2, and most Source games
• Backups built in — ./server backup creates timestamped tarballs of your save data
• Detailed diagnostics — ./server details and ./server debug make troubleshooting painless
• Completely free — MIT licensed, no paid tiers, no license servers, no phone-home

02 // Which Game Server? (Interactive Picker)

LinuxGSM supports over 100 games. Pick yours below to see the exact server script name, hardware requirement, and honest notes. All commands in this guide assume a fresh Ubuntu 22.04 LTS system.

03 // Requirements

LinuxGSM is strict about prerequisites. Install everything below before you try to install a game server — otherwise you will get cryptic errors halfway through the install.

Supported operating systems

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (recommended — this guide uses it)
• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (supported, works identically)
• Debian 12 Bookworm (supported)
• CentOS Stream 9 / Rocky 9 / AlmaLinux 9 (supported, dnf instead of apt)
• Fedora 40+ (works, not officially QA-ed)

Hardware requirements

See the game picker above for per-game RAM. In general:

• CPU: 2 vCPU minimum for any game; 4 vCPU for Rust/ARK; 8 vCPU for modded servers
• RAM: 4GB floor, 16GB for most serious servers
• Disk: 25GB minimum (games + updates eat space fast); SSD/NVMe strongly recommended
• Bandwidth: Unmetered or 2TB+/month; 100 Mbps symmetric minimum
• Root / sudo access is required to install dependencies (not to run the server)

04 // Install Dependencies

LinuxGSM needs 32-bit libraries because SteamCMD and many game binaries are still 32-bit. On a fresh Ubuntu 22.04 install, run everything below as root:

# Update the system first
apt update && apt upgrade -y

# Enable 32-bit architecture (required by SteamCMD)
dpkg --add-architecture i386
apt update

# Install all LinuxGSM base dependencies
apt install -y curl wget file tar bzip2 gzip unzip bsdmainutils \
  python3 util-linux ca-certificates binutils bc jq tmux netcat-openbsd \
  lib32gcc-s1 lib32stdc++6 libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 steamcmd

# Some games need extra libs — install the kitchen sink here,
# it costs you 200MB and saves hours of debugging later
apt install -y libtinfo5 libncurses5:i386 libcurl3-gnutls:i386 \
  libstdc++6:i386 libgcc-s1:i386 lib32z1 libgdiplus libsdl2-2.0-0

05 // Create a Dedicated User

Never run a game server as root. If the server binary is exploited (and it happens, Source engine servers have had RCE bugs), the attacker owns your entire VPS. LinuxGSM's own documentation mandates a dedicated unprivileged user per game server. Convention: name the user after the game script.

# Example for Rust — change 'rustserver' to match your game:
adduser rustserver
#   you will be prompted for a password — make it strong and save it
#   leave all the other prompts blank (press Enter)

# Switch to the new user for every command from now on
su - rustserver

Every step in this guide after this point assumes you are logged in as the dedicated user, not as root. Your prompt should look like rustserver@hostname:~$.

06 // Download LinuxGSM

LinuxGSM is a single bash script that bootstraps the game-specific script. The one-liner from linuxgsm.com is:

# Run this as your dedicated user, NOT as root
wget -O linuxgsm.sh https://linuxgsm.com/dl/linuxgsm.sh
chmod +x linuxgsm.sh

07 // Install Your First Game Server

Now the magic happens. The same pattern works for every game — just swap in the script name from the picker above.

Step 1: Bootstrap the game-specific script

# Replace 'rustserver' with whatever game you picked
bash linuxgsm.sh rustserver

This downloads the rustserver script (or cs2server, mcserver, etc.) and all its helper modules from the LinuxGSM GitHub repo. Takes about 10 seconds.

Step 2: Auto-install

# One command. Fetches SteamCMD, downloads the game, generates configs
./rustserver auto-install

This step takes 5-30 minutes depending on the game and your connection speed:

• Rust: ~8 GB download, 10-15 min on a 100 Mbps link
• CS2: ~35 GB (yes, really), 40-60 min
• Minecraft Java: ~50 MB, 30 seconds
• ARK: ~20 GB, 20-30 min
• Valheim: ~1 GB, 2-3 min

08 // Essential LinuxGSM Commands

Every LinuxGSM script supports the same set of commands. Learn these eight and you can manage any game server with no documentation lookup.

09 // Configuration Files

LinuxGSM uses a three-layer config system. Understanding it saves hours of "why is my change not persisting" frustration.

lgsm/config-default/config-lgsm/rustserver/_default.cfg   # DO NOT EDIT — overwritten by updates
lgsm/config-lgsm/rustserver/common.cfg                    # edit for all-instance settings
lgsm/config-lgsm/rustserver/rustserver.cfg                # edit for this-instance-only settings

Rule: always edit common.cfg or the instance-specific cfg, never _default.cfg. The defaults file is reset on every LinuxGSM update. Settings in the instance cfg override common.cfg, which overrides _default.cfg.

The actual game config (like Rust's server.cfg, CS2's gamemode_competitive.cfg, or Minecraft's server.properties) lives under serverfiles/. LinuxGSM does not touch those — edit them with the game's own documentation.

10 // Game-Specific Config Examples

Real working examples for the five most-asked-about games. Each block shows the minimum edits to get a production-quality server.

Rust (rustserver)

Edit lgsm/config-lgsm/rustserver/rustserver.cfg:

servername="Your Server Name"
servertags="monthly,vanilla,NA"
port="28015"
rconport="28016"
rconpassword="CHANGE-THIS-LONG-RANDOM-STRING"
maxplayers="100"
worldsize="4000"
seed="12345"
saveinterval="300"
fps="60"
# Force a wipe by changing the seed on the first Thursday of the month — see our
# https://hostingbuff.com/blog/rust-server-wipe-guide.html for the full wipe schedule

Counter-Strike 2 (cs2server)

Edit lgsm/config-lgsm/cs2server/cs2server.cfg:

servername="Your CS2 Server"
rconpassword="CHANGE-THIS"
defaultmap="de_mirage"
maxplayers="10"
tickrate="128"
port="27015"
gametype="0"
gamemode="1"
# CS2 requires a Steam Game Server Login Token (GSLT) to appear in the public browser.
# Get one free at https://steamcommunity.com/dev/managegameservers (App ID 730)
gslt="your-gslt-token-here"

Minecraft Java (mcserver)

LinuxGSM uses the vanilla Minecraft jar by default. For better performance, swap to PaperMC after install:

# Download latest Paper build (replace 1.20.6 with current version)
cd ~/serverfiles
wget https://api.papermc.io/v2/projects/paper/versions/1.20.6/builds/latest/downloads/paper-1.20.6-latest.jar -O server.jar

# Tell LinuxGSM to use optimal JVM flags
# Edit lgsm/config-lgsm/mcserver/mcserver.cfg:
javaram="6144"   # 6GB heap for an 8GB VPS
startparameters="-Xms${javaram}M -Xmx${javaram}M -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200 -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:+DisableExplicitGC -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch -jar ${executable} nogui"

See our dedicated Minecraft JVM flags guide for the full Aikar flags and per-player tuning.

TF2 (tf2server)

servername="Your TF2 Server"
rconpassword="CHANGE-THIS"
maxplayers="24"
defaultmap="pl_badwater"
port="27015"
# TF2 needs a GSLT too (App ID 440)
gslt="your-gslt-token-here"

Valheim (vhserver)

servername="Your Valheim Server"
serverpassword="CHANGE-THIS-MIN-5-CHARS"
worldname="Midgard"
port="2456"
public="1"
# Valheim's crossplay option — enables Xbox players to join
crossplay="1"

11 // Monitoring & Alerts (Discord / Email / More)

A server you do not monitor is a server that dies silently at 3 AM. LinuxGSM's monitor subcommand is the answer. Pair it with Discord alerts and you'll know about crashes before your players do.

Enable Discord alerts

1. In your Discord server, open the channel settings → Integrations → Webhooks → New Webhook. Copy the URL.
2. Edit lgsm/config-lgsm/rustserver/common.cfg (or your game's equivalent):

   discordalert="on"
   discordwebhook="https://discord.com/api/webhooks/xxx/yyy"

3. Test: ./rustserver test-alert — a test message should appear in your Discord channel within 2 seconds.

Other supported alert channels

• Email (emailalert="on") — needs mailutils installed and a working mail relay
• Slack (slackalert="on") — webhook URL from Slack's incoming-webhook app
• Telegram (telegramalert="on") — bot token + chat ID from BotFather
• Pushbullet, Pushover, Rocket.Chat, Gotify, IFTTT, Mailgun — all supported with similar config blocks

12 // Auto-Start on Boot with systemd

If your VPS reboots (and it will — security updates, provider maintenance, kernel panics), your server should come back up automatically. LinuxGSM does not install a systemd unit for you, so do it manually. This is the exact unit every production server should use.

As root, create /etc/systemd/system/rustserver.service (replace rustserver everywhere with your game):

[Unit]
Description=Rust Dedicated Server (LinuxGSM)
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=forking
User=rustserver
Group=rustserver
WorkingDirectory=/home/rustserver
ExecStart=/home/rustserver/rustserver start
ExecStop=/home/rustserver/rustserver stop
ExecReload=/home/rustserver/rustserver restart
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30
TimeoutStartSec=900
TimeoutStopSec=120

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable it:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable rustserver
systemctl start rustserver
systemctl status rustserver

13 // Cron Automation: Monitoring, Updates, Backups

Run crontab -e as your game server user (not root) and paste this battle-tested block. It is what every serious LinuxGSM server runs.

# LinuxGSM recommended cron for rustserver — adjust game name as needed
# ======================================================================

# Check every 5 minutes that the server is alive; restart + alert if not
*/5 * * * * /home/rustserver/rustserver monitor > /dev/null 2>&1

# Check for and apply game updates every 30 minutes
*/30 * * * * /home/rustserver/rustserver update > /dev/null 2>&1

# Update LinuxGSM itself weekly (Sunday 4 AM)
0 4 * * 0 /home/rustserver/rustserver update-lgsm > /dev/null 2>&1

# Backup daily at 5 AM — keeps all backups, clean up manually
0 5 * * * /home/rustserver/rustserver backup > /dev/null 2>&1

# Full restart every 12 hours (optional — Project Zomboid / ARK need this)
0 6,18 * * * /home/rustserver/rustserver restart > /dev/null 2>&1

14 // Honest Pros & Cons

No sugar-coating. If LinuxGSM is the wrong tool for your use case, another panel will save you days of headaches.

✓ Wins

• Lightest footprint of any panel — zero daemons, zero database, zero web server. Idle memory usage: about 0 MB.
• Works everywhere — pure bash + POSIX tools. Runs on any Linux in the last 10 years.
• Learn it once, use it everywhere — same commands across 100+ games
• Completely free and MIT licensed — no trial period, no paid tier, no license server
• Fast, readable scripts — you can cat any file and understand what it does; great for debugging and customisation
• Excellent alerting — 10+ channels out of the box, including Discord, Telegram, Slack, email
• Large active community — 15k+ GitHub stars, responsive maintainers, Discord server with 20k+ members
• Built-in diagnostics — postdetails generates a sanitised support report in one command

✗ Drawbacks

• No web UI — if you want a browser dashboard, this is the wrong tool. Use Pterodactyl or AMP.
• SSH required — you must be comfortable with a Linux terminal. If typing cd ~/serverfiles scares you, start with Pterodactyl or managed Nitrado instead.
• No multi-user management — everyone who can SSH in as the game user can do everything. No permission system, no sub-users.
• One instance per user directory — running 5 servers means 5 Linux users, 5 home directories, 5 cron files. Workable, but not as clean as Pterodactyl's node model.
• Windows unsupported — the name is literal. Use WindowsGSM on Windows.
• No automatic plugin management — you install Rust Oxide / Minecraft Paper plugins / SourceMod manually

15 // LinuxGSM vs Other Panels

Pick the right tool for your actual use case. Below is the honest breakdown — we link to each panel's full guide so you can compare apples to apples.

16 // Troubleshooting — Top 10 Problems

These are the issues that show up over and over in the LinuxGSM Discord. Ninety percent of tickets are on this list.

17 // Where to Run LinuxGSM

LinuxGSM is just software — it needs a Linux machine to run on. You have three realistic options, each suited to different skill levels and use cases.

18 // Next Steps

Your LinuxGSM server is running. Here is what to do next — ordered by how much return you get for the effort.

• Pick a game-specific deep dive — our Rust server setup, CS2 setup, Minecraft JVM optimisation, TF2 community server, Valheim setup, or ARK config guide covers game-specific tuning LinuxGSM does not handle
• Secure your VPS — disable password SSH, enable key-only login, set up fail2ban. A LinuxGSM server is only as secure as the host underneath it.
• Plan your wipes (Rust specifically) — our Rust Server Wipe Guide has the full force-wipe calendar, the best wipe days by server type, and an interactive wipe planner.
• Try a web panel if you need one — compare Pterodactyl (free, most popular) and AMP (paid, polished).
• Running on Windows instead? — see our WindowsGSM guide and host-on-Windows tutorial.
• Check port requirements — the interactive port reference lists the exact UDP/TCP ports every LinuxGSM-supported game needs