Installing on Linux ​

Linux ​

Linux installation should be using Ubuntu 20.04+ or greater. The author of this documentation has used Ubuntu 20.04+ without any issues.

Hey Listen!

Athena is not a plug and play game mode. If you cannot script, program, or code and are not willing to learn it is not advised to use this game mode.

Rules for for Folder Paths ​

This is REALLY IMPORTANT so please read carefully.

Why Linux? ​

If your server is not ready for production do not use linux.

If you want to do development use Windows.

GTA:V runs on Windows, so why use anything else.

Dependencies ​

Install or perform all actions in this section. Copy the entire code block and paste it.

GIT ​

Grab the latest version of GIT.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install git

CURL ​

Grab the latest version of Curl.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl

wget ​

Grab the latest version of wget.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install wget

UFW ​

Grab the latest verson of UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall)

sudo apt-get install ufw

NodeJS 16+ through NVM ​

Grab at least version 17+ for NodeJS through nvm.

Uninstall Older Versions* ​

This step only applies if you installed NVM in the past.

nvm uninstall OLD_VERSION_HERE

Install Latest Version of NVM ​

Install the NVM script for selecting NodeJS versions.

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.0/install.sh | bash \
    && export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm" \
    && [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" \
    && [ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"

nvm install 17
nvm use 17

MongoDB ​

Keep in mind this is optional if you use MongoDB Atlas for your database. If you are using a local database please install MongoDB server here.

curl -fsSL https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-4.4.asc | sudo apt-key add -

echo "deb [ arch=amd64,arm64 ] https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu bionic/mongodb-org/4.4 multiverse" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-4.4.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install mongodb-org

sudo systemctl start mongod.service

sudo systemctl status mongod

Instructions pulled from here.

libatomic1 ​

Grab the libatomic1 library.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libatomic1

Create a Github Account ​

Yes you are going to need a Github account. You are also going to need to setup an SSH key for your Github account. It is covered below.

Sign Up with Github

Setup SSH Key ​

GitHub has really good SSH Setup Instructions but they may not be entirely clear for newer developers. If you are comfortable with normal documentation give the above link a try. Make sure to select the Linux tab.

Open a Terminal ​

Git Bash is something that should come with GIT by default. Enter Git Bash in your windows search to open it.

Generate a New SSH Key

Enter the following in a Terminal.

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

When you're prompted to "Enter a file in which to save the key," press Enter. This accepts the default file location.

It may ask you for a password.

Hitting enter twice will automatically default to no password.

Start the SSH Agent

Enter the following in a Terminal.

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

It should respond with 'Agent pid XYZ'

Add the SSH Key to the SSH Agent

Enter the following in a Terminal:

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Add the SSH Key to GitHub

Enter the following in a Terminal:

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Copy the text printed from ssh-ed25519 all the way to your email.

Navigate to your GitHub settings and the SSH and GPG keys section.

Click on New SSH Key

Give the key a name, and paste the public key into the larger text box.

Port Forwarding ​

At the very least you will need to open port 7788 for your main server.

You may need to Forward Ports in your Server Panel, Router, etc. If you are running Athena on a server it is likely you will need to add 7788 to an additional Firewall somewhere in your server providers panel.

UFW Instructions ​

Be very careful about doing this because you need to ensure port 22 is setup for UFW.

We're going to do each of these commands one at a time.

sudo ufw allow 22

sudo ufw allow ssh

sudo ufw allow 7788

sudo ufw enable

You can verify that ports have been opened successfully after you setup the rest of Athena.

Setup Private Repo ​

• Create a New Private Repository

Leave everything as default, do not add any README files or anything else.

Make sure you navigate to the next page where there's a URL ending in .git at the top.

Clone into Private Repository ​

Open a Windows Terminal such as command line or powershell.

git clone https://github.com/Stuyk/altv-athena altv-athena-private

Navigate into the folder through command line, or powershell.

cd altv-athena-private

Go back to the page where we created a new private repository, and COPY the URL that is located in the box at the top

I don't specifically mean the URL in this image, go to your private repository page and copy that URL there.

git remote set-url --push origin THE_COPIED_URL_GOES_HERE

git add *

git commit -m "init"

git push origin

git remote add upstream https://github.com/Stuyk/altv-athena

git remote set-url --push upstream DISABLE

git remote set-url --push origin THE_COPIED_URL_GOES_HERE

If you refresh the GitHub page you should see a clone of Athena inside of your private repository if you were successful.

Pushing updates ​

When you make changes to the code base you can push it by doing:

git add .
git commit -m "Whatever You Changed"
git push origin master

Installing Dependencies ​

This installs all NodeJS packages and dependencies that help run the server.

npm install

Installing Server Files ​

From this point forward you can simply run this npm command to update dependencies.

npm run update

Starting the Server ​

Hey Listen, normally you start the server through altv-server.exe but we do not do that with Athena. There are other programs that run along-side Athena that allow it to function. You will need to run one of the commands below.

Update the server.cfg ​

Do not modify the server.cfg, yes you are reading this correctly.

Instead, you should do the following.

Open 1 of the 3 configuration(s) in the configs folder.

You should see any of the following configurations:

• dev.json
• devtest.json
• prod.json

Edit all of these but remember this very important rule.

Do not change 'host' because 0.0.0.0 is correct.

Production Mode ​

This is the mode you should use when you are having users connect.

Enter the following in a terminal:

npm run linux

Linux only supports production mode as you should be doing most of your development on Windows based computers.

Checking Ports ​

Check if the ports are currently open while the server is running. Check port 7788.

Check Ports with YouGetSignal

Connecting ​

Remember to get the https://altv.mp/ client and connect.

What IP to use? ​

If you are running this on your local machine you should connect to 127.0.0.1:7788.

If you are running this on an external server you should connect to the server's IP address.