The NixTech Forge: My Own OpenSim

Less than an hour ago I was finally successful in compiling, configuring, running and logging into my own OpenSim hosted on a VPS. Currently it's just one small, empty sim and I'm the only avatar on it(I changed the terrain though; it's not a tiny bump of land over water). But creating avatar accounts is very easy, and I'm certain the sim can handle a few simultaneous avatars. So if you want an avatar on the Forge, contact my Second Life avatar "Antonius Misfit" in person or via IM with your desired avatar name and password, and I'll create it and send you the login URI.
P.S - I highly recommend using either the Meerkat or Hippo viewers to access the sim because they have a built-in grid manager to make logins to third-party grids very easy.

The headaches of running an OpenSim on a VPS

I've decided to try and set up a single OpenSim on a VPS solution. After looking at several options, I went for a VPS on Linode.com(the "Linode 540" plan, to be specific). At $30/month it's not bad at all, and the dashboard makes booting, rebooting and shutdown as simple as one mouse click. And I discovered just how ungodly easy it is to actually use ssh("I am now a true geek").

That was the good news. When I actually ssh'ed into the server and tried to follow the normal instructions to build OpenSim, I ran into a few problems. First, apt-get couldn't find any mono packages. A quick look at the sources.list file showed that the universe and multiverse repositories weren't enabled. So a quick edit and "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade && apt-get dist-upgrade" fixed that. So then I go and install all the dependencies needed for OpenSim. I download the OpenSim sources and compile it right after a bit of trial-and-error. I set up the sim accordingly(being careful to input the server's external IP address when prompted by OpenSim), and it runs fine. I fire up Meerkat and add my sim's info to the grid manager. I hit login and then on the OpenSim console...

Got a bad hardware address length for an AF_PACKET 16 8
Got a bad hardware address length for an AF_PACKET 16 8
Got a bad hardware address length for an AF_PACKET 16 8
Got a bad hardware address length for an AF_PACKET 16 8...

An endless loop of that message. I Google the error 'OpenSim "Got a bad hardware address length for an AF_PACKET 16 8"' and I find out that the error is a bug in Mono. There is a patch for it, but it requires me to compile Mono. Sigh. Well, at least all I need to compile is the base Mono tarball.

If and when I finally manage to get my sim up and running, I'll let everyone know. This experience so far has given me a greater respect for the Linden Lab "grid monkeys" and in general anyone else whose jobs require to go through this kind of torture and still manage to keep their sanity.

Some Resources for OpenSim Users

Just a quick post to list off some useful resources I've found for OpenSim users:

• Free Terrains(useful for new SL private region owners too;RAW file downloads aren't working tho)
• More Free Terrains
  
• CC-licensed sounds
• Meerkat viewer(A viewer with object import/export abilities and support for "grid-hopping")
• Public Domain Pictures
• A GIMP plugin for editing RAW terrain files
• A repository of ready-to-use OpenSim archives: http://opensimworlds.com
  

I've yet to find any public domain or Creative Commons licensed prefabs for SL/OpenSim via Google or XStreetSL, sadly. I'll come back to this post and add to this list if I find anything.