Server Setup

Hello

I'm new to Minecraft and of course to Computer Craft.

I run the current server version 1.8.8 of the Vanilla Server with OpenJDK on a headless Debian whezzy box without any plugins. That went stable so far for maybe two weeks now. My nephew has tested it extensively. ;)/>

Now I like to teach my nephew in computer programming. Because he is a Minecraft enthusiast and only 10 years old, Computer Craft seems perfectly suited.
I have browsed just your Wiki and I'm excited about what you can do with ComputerCraft.

My Question: Will Computer Craft run stable with the current Vanilla Server and Forge? Do I need Oracle Java or can I stay with the OpenJDK? The documentation always refers to Oracle. But as you know Oracle is somewhat more difficult to handle under Debian / Linux, if you want to have automatic security updates. However, Oracle is ultimately not my main concern. I could also use Oracle Java on the server if it is really necessary. It would be more important to me that I can use the latest Minecraft server version. I would not like to install an outdated server.

And another question: Do I need to do anything on the client side? My nephew uses the current Vanilla Client with a paid Mojang account and I also. I hope I have not to change the clients because my nephew lives farther away.

Maybe you can give me a few tips. Otherwise, I'll just try it on the weekend. I'm already curious.

Regards
PixelPi

There are no versions of ComputerCraft released for Minecraft 1.8. You would need a 1.7.10 server and clients, with Minecraft Forge installed on both. Once Forge is installed (it has an installer program to simplify the process), you would need to add the ComputerCraft jar file to both the server and the clients.

Lyqyd, on 29 September 2015 - 10:32 PM said:

There are no versions of ComputerCraft released for Minecraft 1.8. You would need a 1.7.10 server and clients, with Minecraft Forge installed on both. Once Forge is installed (it has an installer program to simplify the process), you would need to add the ComputerCraft jar file to both the server and the clients.

Thank you for this quick and straight answer.

It's also worth noting that you can have multiple installations of Minecraft on your system(s). To this end, multiple teams have produced mod pack launchers, special managers which are capable of downloading and starting separate builds of the game with various collections of mods pre-installed (including Forge). This makes getting setup with modded Minecraft quite trivial.

ComputerCraft is probably present in about half the mod packs available - pretty much any pack that doesn't specifically avoid "technology-based" mods will very likely have it.

FTB is a popular mod pack team (see here for their server guide), and DW20 is probably one of their more popular packs (the latest version of which currently has the latest version of ComputerCraft - not all packs are up to date!). AT Launcher is also a fairly well known pack manager/launcher.

If you decide to stick with just ComputerCraft/manual setup for now (instead of a pack), consider looking into CCEdu. It aims to make programming even easier, but I don't believe it's included in any packs (AFAIK, at least - I haven't looked).

@Bomb Bloke: Thanks for the useful hints. I think I will start with a pure Computer Craft installation.

One more question: While Computer Craft is based on 1.7.10 I should hide the server in any case behind a firewall, because of unpatched vulnerabilities?

You shouldn't need a firewall.

Its possible to exploit several protocol vulnerabilities, but it can't effect your system.
Such exploits are mostly used in PVP and survival, and require client side modification.

HPWebcamAble, on 04 October 2015 - 12:17 AM said:

You shouldn't need a firewall.

Its possible to exploit several protocol vulnerabilities, but it can't effect your system.
Such exploits are mostly used in PVP and survival, and require client side modification.

Thank you. I now have nevertheless decided to use a firewall and have installed a 1.7.10 server from: https://mcversions.net/

Is this a right/trusted place to get older server versions? I didn't saw an official download page from Mojang.

I also have still a general question about the client side:

We use the actual launcher which also supports 1.7.10 and older versions. I have made a 1.7.10 based profile (.computercraft). But when I run the Forge installer (forge 1.8-11.14.3.1519) and try to install forge for my .computercraft profile it says: "The directory is missing a launcher profile. Please run minecraft launcher first". I think this happens because .computercraft is just a profile and not the main directory (.minecraft) where the launcher lives. I can install Forge under .minecraft without problems. But if I then copy the ComputerCraft JAR file into the mod directory, I do not see the Mod. What does not surprise me, because it was said to me here expressly that it will not work.

The only solution that comes to mind now is that I even install an old launcher/client version 1.7.10 which runs completely independent from my vanilla client and defaults to version 1.7.10. But I find it just a little bit poor, because the actual vanilla launcher already supports client version 1.7.10. Even though it is more of a Forge/Mc-launcher problem, maybe someone here has an idea.

Is someone using the actual Mc-launcher with ComputerCraft?

You want to run the Forge installer (you need to use one for 1.7.10 and you might want to run vanilla 1.7.10 first) against the main directory, it creates a version (possibly also a profile) then you just change your profile to use that version.

You might want to look at MultiMC:
https://multimc.org/

It makes version control much simpler (Or so I hear, I haven't used it personally)

I also recommend MultiMC for client side - it makes installing and managing MC/Forge much quicker and easier.