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Installing OpenSim
In order to setup a basic standalone sim on your home PC you need just two pieces of
software, the OpenSim server software, and a client (viewer) to connect to it.
Step 1: Installing and Setting up the Server
The OpenSim server software can be downloaded from the OSGrid website. While on the
OSGrid download page, I recommend that you also download the new Hippo viewer,
especially designed for grid use, and with a very nifty new Grid button. It supports 45,000
prims and allows building up to a height of 10,000 m. Megaprims of up to 256x256x256 m
come as standard, and it has several other exciting features. You can, of course, use the SL
viewer, and this tutorial will guide you through using both the Hippo viewer and the SL
viewer.
Once you have downloaded the OpenSim server software, unzip it, and get the Bin folder
out. This folder contains all the files needed for the OpenSim server. This folder can reside
anywhere you like on your hard-drive. The steps required to get the server ready for use
are as follows:
1. Create a shortcut on the desktop to the OpenSim.exe file in the Bin folder.
2. Rename the opensim.ini.example file to OpenSim.ini, and made sure that you are in
standalone mode by going to the [Startup] section, and setting gridmode=false (if
you intend to connect your region to a grid, such as OSGrid, you will need to set
this to true, but for now, practice with a single standalone region). (Note: Vista
users should ensure that they are in Admin mode, before completing the next
steps)
3. Double-click the OpenSim desktop shortcut and a DOS-like server control window
will open, and various status messages will scroll by. Once it has stopped it will ask
for the basic 9 settings it will use to create your first region, with the default
settings in square brackets. To accept a default setting, just hit the Enter key:
Region Name [openSim Test] name your region here, anything you like *
Grid Location (X-Axis) [1000] do not change
Grid Location (Y-Axis) [1000] do not change
Internal IP address [0.0.0.0] do not change
Internal IP Port [9000] do not change
External Host Name [127.0.0.1] keep, for now *
First Name of Master Avatar [Test] change to whatever you like *
Last Name of Master Avatar [User] change to whatever you like *
Password for Master Avatar [test] keep or change to whatever you like *
All the parameters marked * you should make a note of, as you will need them later when
setting up your viewer.
After entering the last parameter the Server creates the default.xml file in the Bin\Regions
folder, and when you see the line,
Region (root) # :
you know the server is ready.
switch off your other firewalls, such as Windows Firewall, ZoneAlarm, or any of your
security suites that may have a firewall bundled. So just try switching them all off and then
see if a connection can be made.
3. Try to ping your external IP address. Go to Start, and in the Run box type cmd to get the
DOS-like cmd console up. In here type (using the example above): ping 78.154.28.7
If you get a response fine, but if the three attempts all time out then either your router is
setup to ignore pings, or your ISP is blocking them. If your router manual provides no info
on blocking pings, then try asking your ISP support if they block them.
4. The most common reason I have found for not connecting has been that the router was
not configured correctly to pass the required ports. Please double-check that you have gone
through Step 2 100% correctly.
If you had a problem connecting, and eventually got it resolved, please post your solution
here, it may help others.
Then change your Port number on your viewer from 8002 back to 9000, and you should be
good to go (but again, strangely, it took me 2 or 3 attempst to get back in properly). You
do not need to change any of the keys from '1234' back to 'null'.
The next tutorial will show you how to connect to the OSGrid.
first, in case you wish to revert later). Search for the following parameters, and change
them as follows:
gridmode = true
asset_database = "grid"
see_into_this_sim_from_neighbor = True
serverside_object_permissions = True
grid_server_url = http://osgrid.org:8001/
grid_send_key = "1234"
grid_recv_key = "1234"
user_server_url = http://osgrid.org:8002/
user_send_key = "1234"
user_recv_key = "1234"
asset_server_url = http://osgrid.org:8003/
inventory_server_url = http://osgrid.org:8004/
Save the file.
Step 5: Launch OpenSim
You do not need the UGAIM servers for connecting to OSGrid, so you can now just go right
ahead and launch OpenSim.exe You may see lots of errors rushing by in yellow and red,
this is to be expected, but hopefully, the server should eventually complete, pause, and you
will have the Region #: prompt. This indicates that your server is now connected to the
OSGrid!
Step 6: Connecting your Viewer
Open your hippo viewer, select the Grids button, and choose OSGrid from the Select a Grid
drop-down box. You might want to select this as the default from now on, if you expect to
be on OSGrid for some time. Next, login using the User Name and Password that you chose
when you created your OSGrid account earlier. You may now even see your region listed in
the Region list on the main screen, if you do, select it. If not, then for the Start Location,
choose and type in the name of your region.
If you are using the SL Viewer, use this at the end of the Target for the login URI: -loginuri
http://osgrid.org:8002 -loginpage http://osgrid.org/loginscreen.php -helperuri
http://osgrid.org/
Hit Connect, and you should be in your region on the OSGrid.
user_send_key = 1234
user_recv_key = 1234
asset_server_url = http://myhost.servegame.org:8003
inventory_server_url = http://myhost.servegame.org:8004
Also check your 5 UGAIM xml config files:
UserServer_Config.xml
GridServer_Config.xml
AssetServer_Config.xml
InventoryServer_Config.xml
MessagingServer_Config.xml
and change all references to 127.0.0.1 to myhost.servegame.org
at the 999 1005 location. Clicking in the middle of this new region, and then clicking the
Teleport Button, I teleported directly to the region, and was able to explore the OSGrid
from there. I teleported back home by selecting Teleport Home from the World menu on the
viewer.
Important Note
Due to a viewer bug, you can only TP between regions that are no more than 4096 cells
apart in any dimension. What this means in practice is that if you want to link to OSGrid,
you must have your own regions reachable from the (10,000; 10,000) point on the map,
which is where OSGrid is centered. Place your regions somewhere in the 8,000s or the
12,000s. If you don't, you will find that when you arrive at UCI Welcome all you will see is
sky, no land, no avatars, and you will not even see yourself. However, if you turn your
camera you will see the neighbouring sim, and crossing over into that you will then see
yourself, with appearance intact. You might want to leave a marker pole on that sim, as
others have done.
More details on Hypergrid and other regions that you could teleport to, are available on
the Hypergrid wiki, from which this tutorial has drawn.
can use Captcha instead for new user confirmation, and this is described in Part 3.
Now hit the Enter key in that DOS-like window, and type QUIT (in capitals). That will close
the window and Putty.
Software Required
The first piece of software you need is WAMP. WAMP stands for Apache, MySQL, PHP on
Windows (sort of back-to-front I know). This free suite is amazing.
Basically the suite installs:
Apache: this will turn your server into a fully-fledged web-server
PHP: this will enable your server to run php scripts to run things such as a Web-Interface
MySQL: the preferred database engine for opensim
The suite has some great tools included too, such as phpMyAdmin which allows you to
explore and change your MySQL database.
Before we start, if you already have MySQL installed on your machine, you should make a
backup of your database, and uninstall MySQL. To do this:
a) Create a Backup of your database
Open a command console window (go to Start, Run, and type 'cmd' (without the quotes) in
the Open: box.). In the command console type the following:
mysqldump -u root -p opensim > c:\opensim.sql
This command starts the mysqldump backup utility. The full syntax for this command is:
mysqldump -u [username] -p [databasename] > [backupfile.sql]
where:
username = the user name you use in MySQL, usually 'root' the -p switch will prompt you
for the password you use for MySQL
databasename = the name of the database you wish to backup, in our case this is
'opensim'
backupfile.sql = the path and name of the backup file, can be anything, for example,
c:\opensim.sql'
b) Uninstall MySQL
If MySQL is running as a Windows service you must first stop it. To do this go to Start,
Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services. Scroll down till you see MySQL,
select it, and choose Stop the Service from the left-pane.
It is much easier to use the same User name and Password for your new MySQL so make a
note of it now, before uninstalling.
You can now uninstall MySQL in the normal way, by going to Start, Settings, Control Panel,
Add or Remove Programs. Scroll down until you see MySQL Server 5.0, select it, and
choose Remove.
Step 1: Installing WAMP
You can download your copy of WampServer from here. I do not intend to reinvent the
wheel, as there is an excellent step-by-steo guide to installing WampServer, with
screenshots, on the JLBN website. Just follow their steps, to the bottom of the page, then it
will ask, When you are ready, click here to go to the next page, and so on to the end.
Once WampServer is installed you will see the icon in the System Tray, left-click it, and at
the bottom of the Wamp menu you will see Put Online, choose this, then select Start All
Services. Wamp and its services are now running.
Step 2: Configure MySQL
From the Wamp menu select phpMyAdmin.
In the left pane select mysql.
Check the checkbox besides 'user' and then click the Browse icon to its right.
The first entry should be 'localhost' 'root', check the checkbox then click the Pencil edit.
The first three Fields are Host, User and Password.
For Host, make the Value localhost. Leave the Function blank.
For User, make the Value root (or whatever MySQL username you chose). Leave the
Function blank.
For Password, make the Value the MySQL password you chose. For Function, select
PASSWORD from the drop-down box. This is very IMPORTANT.
At the bottom of this table you will see a Go button, hit it.
In the left pane, at the top, you will see a little Home icon, click this.
In the right pane you will see the option to Reload Privileges, hit this, it should say
Reloaded Successfully.
Now click on Databases, and in the Create new database box, type 'opensim' (without the
quotes) or whatever name you have used for your MySQL opensim database.
If you get an 'Access denied' error at this point, do the following:
Open Explorer and navigate to wamp\apps\phpmyadmin
Open the config.inc.php file in Notepad
Find the line: $cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] =
The password in the quotes will be blank, enter your MySQL password here, save.
Close down phpMyAdmin, then reopen it (to clear the cache)
Click on the Home icon, and you should be able to create a database now
Use the same name for your database that you used previously (if you were using MySQl
previously).
Once the database has been created it will appear in the left pane.
Close phpMyAdmin
Close phpMyAdmin
If you now go to your domain in a browser, you should see the WI, but with some junk code
at the top of screen. Don't worry about that, it will be fixed.
Step 3: Restart Apache
Click on the Wamp system tray icon, and select Apache, Service, and Restart Service.
Step 4: Configure the Web Interface
Navigate to wamp\www\settings and open the config.php file in Notepad. At the top should
be the System settings:
SysName: this is the name that will appear in the Title Bar of your WI.
SysURL: this is the address of your host (mine was http://anubia.servegame.org)
SysMail: provide a valid email address for yourself here
Now scroll down to the Database section, and enter your database details like this:
define("C_DB_TYPE","mysql");
//Your Hostname here:
define("C_DB_HOST","localhost");
//Your Databasename here:
define("C_DB_NAME","opensim");
//Your Username from Database here:
define("C_DB_USER","root");
//Your Database Password here:
define("C_DB_PASS","mypassword");
Now save this file
If you now go back to your browser, enter the url of your host again, and refresh the page,
you should see it OK
Step 5: Change your WI Admin Password
In your browser, enter the url of your host again, but add /admin/ at the end, like this:
http://anubia.servegame.org/admin/
The default user name is admin, and the password is test. Enter these and inside select
Change Admin Pass from the menu in the left pane. In here you can change your password,
and Save.
In the last part of this tutorial we will set up the mail server, for registration confirmation.
must open and click on the Confirmation link, before the account becomes active and they
can log in.
Note: Another authentication system, using Captcha, is described at the end, in case you
cannot use email due to Port 25 being blocked.
Troubleshooting
Test the facility by creating an account, and using a known good email address. The email
should pop up in the Email Server window when the account is created, so look out for it.
If the email shows up in the server, but does not appear to get sent, then check that the
email is valid, and has been typed in correctly. Try another email address.
It has been noted that an email address can only be used once to create a user. If you try
to create another user, and provide an email address that has been used before, then you
will get a "This email address is already in use" message, and you must supply another
email address to continue.
It should also be remembered that many ISP's now, especially on home connections, block
outbound port 25 to prevent compromised machines spamming and instead force you to
relay through their SMTP servers.
Captcha
The main purpose of email confimation is prevent web-bots from creating accounts on your
grid. Another method of prevention is the use of the Captcha system.
To use Captcha instead of email confirmation just download this zip file. Instructions for use
are included inside (it is very, very simple).
http://anubia.servegame.org
This should be replaced with your grid's own hostname or IP address.
SL Viewer
Right-click the viewer shortcut icon, Properties, and under the Shortcut tab you will have a
Target similar to this:
"C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -set SystemLanguage en-us -multiple
-loginuri http://anubia.servegame.org:8002
Modify this to the following:
"C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -set SystemLanguage en-us -multiple
-loginuri http://anubia.servegame.org:8002 -loginpage
http://anubia.servegame.org/loginscreen.php -helperuri http://anubia.servegame.org/
Hippo Viewer
Set the following parameters for your grid:
Login URI: http://anubia.servegame.org:8002
Platform: Opensim
Grid Nickname: anubia
Grid Name: anubia
Login Page: http://anubia.servegame.org/loginscreen.php
Helper URI: http://anubia.servegame.org/
Web Site: http://anubia.servegame.org/about
* For both viewers the trailing slash for the helper uri is important.
Step 7: Restart WAMP and the Services
To put all these changes into effect you must close down OpenSim and stop all the Wamp
services, and the Wamp server. Restart the wamp server, restart all the services, and
restart Opensim, and money should now be enabled.
Step 8: Update the Database
As only users that are created via the Web Interface can log in there and look at their
transaction history you might want to consider 'converting' the existing users created via
the console. To do this simply log into Web Interface Admin, and above the left-hand Menu
you will see an option to Update Database. Clicking on this will synchronise the user table
with the wi_user table, and make them all Active.
Money goes missing for no apparent reason (often when crossing region borders).
Relogging usually restores the correct balance.
Troubleshooting
Some people have reported that their installation did not work and eventually they found
that either the wrong php.ini had been edited (as there is another in the php folder) or that
xmlrpc was not running.
A handy check is to create the following php script in notepad (replacing the square
brackets with chevrons):
[?php
phpinfo()
?]
To set things up, go into opensim.ini, and near the end you find the Grid Info section.
The options are as follows (and the values I have given below are the ones that produced
the AFTER screenshot above):
; login uri: for grid this is the user server URI
login = http://anubia.servegame.org:8002/
; long grid name: the long name of your grid
gridname = "Anubia"
; short grid name: the short name of your grid
gridnick = "anubia"
; login page: optional: if it exists it will be used to tell the client to use
; this as splash page
welcome = http://anubia.servegame.org/loginscreen.php
; helper uri: optional: if it exists if will be used to tell the client to use
; this for all economy related things
economy = http://anubia.servegame.org
; web page of grid: optional: page providing further information about your grid
about = http://anubia.servegame.org/about
; account creation: optional: page providing further information about obtaining
; a user account on your grid
register = http://anubia.servegame.org/register
; help: optional: page providing further assistance for users of your grid
help = http://anubia.servegame.org/help
; password help: optional: page providing password assistance for users of your grid
password = http://anubia.servegame.org/password
Tip: If the Grid Info does not match what you have entered into your opensim.ini, try
clearing the cache, or stopping and restarting the UGAIM service and opensim.exe.
wamp\www\images\login_screens\
SL Viewer
Unfortunately the SL viewer does not currently support Grid Info, but you can provide your
users with that nice login screen, with the drop-down Region List. To do this:
Right-click the shortcut icon, Properties, Shortcut Tab,
add this switch to the end of the Target,
-http://anubia.servegame.org/loginscreen.php