Raspberry Pi Minecraft Server

A Raspberry Pi Minecraft server is a cost-effective way to have your very own private server with your friends or just for stuffing around on.

Raspberry Pi Minecraft

I have had mine running for quite some time now and haven’t come across too many problems. It is very important to know that this server will not be able to hold many people.

From my experience, anything over five people and the server will start to get a bit wonky. I found the optimal amount of people is only two to three, but this can be improved upon by tweaking the server.

We are also going to be using the spigot version of Minecraft as the default install didn’t work for me. I found that it will crash a lot, be laggy, and is very unstable. The official Java version may improve over time.

If you are looking for the Bedrock server, be sure to check out our Minecraft Bedrock server tutorial. It will take you through all the steps to setting it up correctly.

In this project, we will utilize Java, which should already be installed on Raspberry Pi OS. We will make a few changes to optimize the server for the Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4, or 5. We will also set it up so you can access it on the web, and have it reboot if the Pi goes offline for any reason.

Equipment

Please find the equipment that I used for making this Raspberry Pi Minecraft server below.

Recommended

Optional

Video Tutorial

If you want to see how to set up the server, then check out my video below. Otherwise, I have a detailed text explanation immediately below the video.

If you like the video, please make sure you subscribe or follow us on social media, so you are kept up to date.

Setting up the Raspberry Pi Minecraft Server

Firstly, we must install an operating system onto the Raspberry Pi. If you haven’t already done this, check out our awesome guide on installing Raspberry Pi OS. It will take you through all the steps that you will need to do.

In this tutorial, we will work entirely in the terminal. It is probably best we boot straight into the terminal so we can save on resources by not loading the GUI.

1. First, update operating system packages to the latest version by entering the following commands.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

2. Now, we will need to make a couple of changes in the config tool. Let’s bring the tool up by entering the following line.

sudo raspi-config

If you need more information regarding the raspi-config tool, please check out our guide.

3. Also, it is unlikely you want to boot into the desktop, so ensure the boot option is set to the CLI (Command Line Interface). This change will help give the server as much processing power as possible.

To change the boot option, select 1 System Options, and select Boot / Auto Login.

Select Console or Console Autologin.

4. Finally, enable SSH so we can access the Pi remotely if required, unless you already have it enabled.

To enable SSH, go to Interface Options. Next, Select I1 SSH. Lastly, answer <YES> to enable the SSH server.

5. Now go to <Finish> on the main screen and answer <YES> to the reboot question.

6. We will now want the IP address of our Pi for when we try to connect to our server. To get the Raspberry Pi IP address, enter the hostname command.

sudo hostname -I

To ensure the IP doesn’t change, you should set up setup a static IP address on the Raspberry Pi and your router.

7. Next, we need to make sure that Git and jq is installed. Otherwise, we will not be able to build the server.

Enter the following command to install the Git software as well as jq. jq allows us to easily interpret JSON data within the terminal.

sudo apt install git jq

8. By default, Java (17) should already be available on Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm). However, if you wish to use the latest version of the Minecraft server, you will need to use a newer version than what is available.

To install a version of Java compatible with Minecraft 1.20.6 + (Java 21 or 22), please follow our installing Java guide.

9. Now, we will need the Minecraft server file, which we will create using a builder tool that Spigot supplies.

To get the tools, enter the following commands.

mkdir ~/minecraft
cd ~/minecraft
wget https://hub.spigotmc.org/jenkins/job/BuildTools/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/target/BuildTools.jar

10. Now we will want to run the build tools file, so it creates our Spigot server. It will take about 15 minutes to finish.

Change --rev latest at the end of the command to get a different version. Don’t forget to change latest in the command to the version number you wish to download. For example, --rev 1.20.6 will download version 1.20.6.

java -Xmx1024M -jar BuildTools.jar --final-name server.jar --rev latest

Important: If you have a Raspberry Pi B+, B, or any variation before the Raspberry Pi 2, the build tools will likely fail. You will need to generate the spigot.jar on a more powerful computer instead.

11. To ensure the Spigot server successfully downloaded and saved, simply type ls. You should see spigot-1.20.6.jar. The filename may be different depending on the version you downloaded.

ls

Make sure you remain in the ~/minecraft folder as we want all the server files to be created in here. If you start the server in a different folder, it will create the files there.

12. Now we are ready to launch the server. To do this, enter the following command. You may need to change the version number depending on what version you’re using e.g. spigot-1.20.6.jar.

Raspberry Pi 1

java -Xms256M -Xmx496M -jar ~/minecraft/server.jar nogui

Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4, or 5

java -Xms512M -Xmx1008M -jar ~/minecraft/server.jar nogui

With the 2GB and 4GB variants of the Raspberry Pi 4 or 5, you can increase the Xmx value even higher.

The server will stop straight away as we will need to agree to the Eula. You can do this by opening the Eula by typing the following command.

nano eula.txt

13. In here, change “false” to “TRUE“. Once done, save and exit by pressing CTRL + X, then Y.

14. Now relaunch the server. It will take a while to create a map, so give it about three to five minutes. If you ever reboot again, it will only take thirty seconds to load if the map has already been created.

15. The server should be running and accessible over the local network.

16. You might want to mod your user now so that you can use all the server commands when you log in. If we have it auto-boot on startup, accessing the server backend is slightly more difficult.

To mod your user, simply run the following command when the server has launched (Replacing username with your username).

op username

17. The Minecraft server on the Raspberry Pi will now be up and running fine, but you may want to do some optimizations to the server to make it run even better.

Raspberry Pi Minecraft Server

Connecting to the Minecraft Server

If you are on a local network, it should be pretty easy to connect to the Minecraft server running on the Raspberry Pi. To test it out, follow the steps below.

1. Load the Minecraft Java client on a computer within the same local network as the Pi. Ensure the version of the client matches the version of the server.

2. Go to multiplayer, and your server might appear in the local list. If it doesn’t, simply go to direct connect and enter the IP address we got earlier on the Pi using the hostname command.

hostname -I

3. If you want to allow access to the Minecraft server via the internet, you will need to set up port forwarding.

Assuming you want to learn how to do this, head over to my guide on setting up Raspberry Pi port forwarding. You will need to port forward the port 25565 (unless you change it in the server properties) to the IP of your Pi.

Configuring the Server

Here are a few tips for configuring the server and getting it up and running.

Optimizing the Minecraft Server

To get the most out of our Minecraft server on the Raspberry Pi, you can install a plugin to help optimize the performance.

There are many plugins that can help with performance or extend the server’s functionality. Simply use the wget command to download them to the Pi. Below is an example.

cd ~/minecraft/plugins
wget -O example.jar <example_plugin_url>

Editing the Minecraft Properties

You will probably want to know how to edit the server properties. This ability to edit is very important for optimizing the server and customizing it to how you want the server to be.

If you want more information for each of the server settings, you can find a good page on all the server properties here.

To enter the server properties, enter the following line.

sudo nano ~/minecraft/server.properties

Now, we will want to change a few settings to help optimize the performance of the server.

You can change these and other settings to whatever you like however you want, but keep in mind the Pi can’t handle too much processing.

view-distance=04
max-player=5

Boot on Startup

To have the server start on boot, we will need to do a few extra steps.

1. We will need to create a service for the Minecraft server so let’s start writing the service file by entering the command below.

sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/minecraftserver.service

2. In this file you will need to enter the following text.

This file defines the service, so the service manager knows how and what to run. Don’t forget to update the spigot version number whenever you upgrade.

Update “<USER>” with the username you plan on using to run the server. You can see the username of your user by entering the whoami command into the terminal.

[Unit]
Description=Minecraft Spigot Server

[Service]
User=<USER>
Group=<USER>
Restart=on-abort
WorkingDirectory=/home/<USER>/minecraft/
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -Xms512M -Xmx1008M -jar /home/<USER>/minecraft/server.jar nogui

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Once done, save the file by pressing CTRL + X then Y followed by ENTER.

3. Now, we will need to enable the service. You can enable the service by running the command below.

sudo systemctl enable minecraftserver.service

4. You should now be able to start the Minecraft server by simply using the following command.

sudo systemctl start minecraftserver.service

5. Using a similar command, you can check on the status of the service. Checking the status is great for debugging.

sudo systemctl status minecraftserver.service

5. You can stop the server by using the following command.

sudo systemctl stop minecraftserver.service

Your server should now start on boot. You can test it by restarting the Raspberry Pi. It will take a few minutes to startup.

sudo reboot

If you want to get access to the server on the command line, then you will need to shut down the server and load it using the normal command.

Updating your Minecraft Server on the Raspberry Pi

In this section, we will be showing you how to update to the latest version of the Minecraft server on your Raspberry Pi.

1. Before we can begin to update the Minecraft server, we will need to change to the directory where the server is stored.

If you have followed our tutorial, this means you should be able to change to the correct place by running the command below.

cd ~/minecraft/

2. The first thing we will want to do now that we are in the right place is ensure we have the latest version of the Spigot build tools.

We can use the wget command to download the latest release by using the following in the terminal.

wget https://hub.spigotmc.org/jenkins/job/BuildTools/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/target/BuildTools.jar

3. With the build tools updated, we can now grab the version number for the latest version of the Minecraft server by using the following command.

If you have a particular version of the Minecraft server, you want to use on your Raspberry Pi replace the command with that here. Otherwise, we can use a bit of curl and jq magic to get the version number we are after.

MINECRAFT_VERSION=$(curl -sS https://launchermeta.mojang.com/mc/game/version_manifest.json | jq -r '{latest: .latest.release} | .[]')

4. Once you have got your version number saved to the environment variable we can proceed.

Before we can update the Minecraft server on our Raspberry Pi, we will need to stop the current one from running. You can stop the running server by running the command below.

sudo systemctl stop minecraftserver

5. Now use the Spigot build tools to download and update you Minecraft server to the latest version.

Please note that this process can take a couple of minutes to complete.

java -Xmx1024M -jar BuildTools.jar --final-name server.jar --rev $MINECRAFT_VERSION

6. Once the update process completes, you can start the server up by using the following command.

sudo systemctl start minecraftserver

Conclusion

I hope this tutorial has helped you in setting up a stable version of a Raspberry Pi Minecraft server. If you like this tutorial, then be sure to check out our many other Raspberry Pi Projects.

Also, feel free to drop us a comment below if you have better optimization settings, plugins, or ideas. If you’re having trouble, let us know below.

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303 Comments

  1. Avatar for glen
    glen on

    How do i delete all of the files because they wont delete…
    It’s taking up too much space on my pi 🙁

    1. Avatar for Gus
      Gus on
      Editor

      If you want to remove everything you just installed from this tutorial make sure you first kill the minecraft process. This is detailed in the boot at start up.

      You will then need to run the following commands:

      This first command will remove the java we downloaded and unzipped

      sudo rm -R /opt/jdk1.8.0_60

      This second command will remove the minecraft folder/files.

      sudo rm -R /home/minecraft

      ** Be careful when running the above commands as they will remove everything in those folders and the folders themselves.

      If you want to confirm it has been removed simply run:

      sudo ls /home

      The minecraft folder should no longer exist. You can do a similar command to check the /opt/ folder.

      Also don’t forget to remove the bash call from the rc.local file if you added that in the start up script stage.

  2. Avatar for Samuel
    Samuel on

    Hi!
    I have just made this project but when I’m trying to enter the server from a laptop in my local network the server stop responding and the server is rebooting (not the pi just the server program), have tried to adjust the overclocking up and down but no result…
    What do u think Gus?

    MVH Samuel

  3. Avatar for Glen
    Glen on

    Hello,
    Unfortunately the eula doesnt want to open in nano and when i go into my files the eula is called eula.txt.save. i cannot even open it vi the text editor!!! please can you help me as soon as possible
    Thanks

  4. Avatar for Jonathan
    Jonathan on

    Hello,

    I have a simple problem that can hopefully be solved with a simple command line.
    How to i access the command console after closing out a session in a program like PuTTY? Any help would be appreciated!

    -Jonathan

  5. Avatar for Berend Jan
    Berend Jan on

    I got the latest update of Raspbian for my Pi 2 (the Jesse version).

    After turning my Raspberry Pi 2 into a MineCraft server startx would not work anymore.
    It hangs on a blank screen.

    Strange!

    1. Avatar for Dr. Vegetable
      Dr. Vegetable on

      I suspect you followed the (excellent!) instructions too closely. : ) In step 3, the instructions tell you to set the memory split to 16, which is probably not leaving enough RAM for the graphics controller to start the GUI:

      “First let’s go to Advanced Options->Memory Split, update this to 16. (This will allow for more memory to be free for the server)”

      You will likely need to set the split to a higher number in order to use X. But this will reduce the RAM available to the CPU, which may impact the performance of your Minecraft server. The best solution is to dedicate a Pi to running Minecraft server and get another Pi to run X.

  6. Avatar for Marco
    Marco on

    How can i make 3 pi’s work together to run one minecraft server ?

    1. Avatar for CrunchyCookies
      CrunchyCookies on

      I dont think you can however if your thinking of owning a big server there are many paid hosting website you can use

  7. Avatar for Marco
    Marco on

    how can i restart just the server and see the white-list document from the pi using command?

  8. Avatar for Tonis
    Tonis on

    Hi Gus!
    Thanks for nice tutorial, I got server running when I downloaded ready-built spigot. I’m very new in this world (of Minecraft 😉 ), so maybe it sounds a naive question, but is there any free Minecraft clients for RPI(2) that can connect to this server?
    Best wishes,
    Tonis

    1. Avatar for wizdude
      wizdude on

      The clients for all platforms are provided by Mojang for free download, but you need to have a Mojang account to connect to any Minecraft server – even one that you are running yourself.

      The authentication and authorisation is performed by the server when you connect from the client.

  9. Avatar for Samir
    Samir on

    I have a Kano kit I just bought. I tried the instructions within LXTerminal but that gives me an error “sudo: apt: command not found”. Do I need to prepare a Rasbian SD card or is there a way to install MC server on the Kano kit. What I’ve read is that the Kano kit comes with Rasbian installed. Help please! Thanks in advance.

    1. Avatar for Samir
      Samir on

      Update: I was able to resolve my own question. I have the server running now and was able to connect from another PC on the same device. This is a very well written guide and perfect for a novice like me!

      Once I fired up MC server, I am at a “>” prompt but not sure how to proceed to the optimization steps or exit the minecraft prompt.

    2. Avatar for klarichter
      klarichter on

      I also have a kano and got the server running now. But how can I leave the kano system and stop the kano program to get more free memory? Upon reboot it always enters automatically into the kano program.

  10. Avatar for Ola
    Ola on

    Hi folks,
    Does anyone know how to input server commands from the terminal?

    When running the server manually I can enter commands, but how can I access the server when it starts automaticly on boot?

    1. Avatar for wizdude
      wizdude on

      the solution is to use the gnu “screen” command which you can install using:

      sudo apt-get install screen

      configure your Pi not to automatically start the minecraft server. once you have booted up, SSH into the Pi and start a new screen session using:

      screen -S mcs

      this starts up a new “screen” called “mcs” (short for “minecraft screen”, but you could use any name you like.)

      start up the server per normal. when you want to disconnected, use the sequence: Control-a d

      this will detach you from the minecraft screen session and return you to a prompt. the minecraft server is still running in the screen session you started earlier.

      you can now logout of your Pi.

      to get back to the console again, SSH into your Pi and use the command

      screen -ls

      to list all of the running screen sessions. you will see your minecraft server session there with a name like 3829.mcs. reattach to this session by using:

      screen -r 3829.mcs

      (substitute the appropriate number above with the one you from the screen -ls command).

      it is possible to make minecraft start up automatically in a screen session on bootup, but how to do that exceeds what I can provide in a blog comment 🙂

      for a cheat sheet on screen commands, see this site:
      http://aperiodic.net/screen/quick_reference

      note that you are not limited to a single screen. you could have multiple screens running – one for minecraft, one for general purpose usage etc. when you “disconnect” all of these screens will stay alive.

      enjoy 🙂

    2. Avatar for Jeff
      Jeff on

      You said: “it is possible to make Minecraft start up automatically in a screen session on bootup, but how to do that exceeds what I can provide in a blog comment”

      Well here is the simplest way I can think of:
      As stated in Gus’ “Boot on Statup” section, edit the /etc/rc.local file, but instead of adding a line referencing minecraft-start.sh use the following command:
      cd /home/minecraft && screen -dmS minecraft /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/java -Xms512M -Xmx1008M -jar /home/minecraft/spigot-1.9.jar nogui

      This command should go right before the line reading exit. Now when your system starts up Minecraft will start in a detached screen session which you can resume / rejoin by running the command:
      sudo screen -r minecraft

      OR if you only have one screen session running you can shorten the command to sudo screen -r which will resume the only active screen session.

      When you resume/ rejoin your screen session, you will see your Minecraft server’s screen, and be able to interact with it normally. When your done simply close your putty window, or use the following key combination:
      - a
      - d

      In either case the minecraft server will continue to run, and you will be able to rejoin it at any time with the screen command. Well until you minecraft server, as that will incidentally result in the screen session being closed / terminated.

    3. Avatar for Mr Dole
      Mr Dole on

      Apologies for adding to the clutter – but this is the most clear and concise guide on the internet. I really want to thank you for simplifying everything. We are having so much fun with the server and your guide helped me out – especially with the screen command – trying to understand that elsewhere was very frustrating. Thank you again

  11. Avatar for Diogo
    Diogo on

    Hi Gus,
    I run Buidtools twice because spigot-1.8.8.jar wont appear. the second time copy that:
    Pulling updates for /home/minecraft/BuildData/.git
    Successfully fetched updates!
    ————————————————————————————
    Found good Minecraft hash (a0671390aa0691e70a950155aab06ffb)
    Final mapped jar: work/mapped.ba9a3cce.jar does not exist, creating!

    Can you help me?

    1. Avatar for Gus
      Gus on
      Editor

      Thanks Diogo,

      I got your latest comment and have a solution. The buildtools we’re using for the Raspberry Pi Minecraft server chew up too much memory for any version of the Pi before the Raspberry Pi 2.

      I have instead compiled the spigot file and is available for download using the following command:

      sudo wget http://www.mediafire.com/download/kvkkxsu7ws6nhvz/spigot-1.8.8.jar

  12. Avatar for boooey1
    boooey1 on

    It isn’t working to download java it gives my 404 errors

  13. Avatar for Tobi
    Tobi on

    If I try to use this command: “sudo /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/java -Xms512M -Xmx1008M -jar /home/minecraft/spigot-1.8.8.jar nogui”, I get this Error:” Error: Unable to acssess jafile /home/minecraft/spigot-1.8.8.jar”. What shot I do? (I have a Rasperry pi 2)

    1. Avatar for Gus
      Gus on
      Editor

      Hi Tobi,

      First thing to do is make sure the spigot-1.8.8.jar file exists by running the following command: ls /home/minecraft/spigot-1.8.8.jar .

      If it doesn’t then simply run the buildtools again and look to see if an error occurs.

      Otherwise it may be an issue with permissions on that particular file. (Eg. Java doesn’t have the rights to access it)

      Hope this helps! Let me know if you’re still having problems.

  14. Avatar for Robert
    Robert on

    I was good up to step 16. When I try sudo /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/java -Xms512M -Xmx1008 -jar/home/minecraft/spigot-1.8.8.jar nogui I get the following response: Unrecognized option: -jar/home/minecraft/spigot-1.8.8.jar Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine. Error: A fatal exception has occurred. Program will exit.

    Any idea on what I may be doing wrong? I appreciate the help. My 3 kids are anxious to play together.

    1. Avatar for Gus
      Gus on
      Editor

      Hi Robert,

      Looking at the the error you have posted it looks like you’re missing a space in-between the -jar and /home/minecraft/sigot-1.8.8.jar.

      You are also missing a M after the 1008 number.

      Hope this helps! Please let me know if you’re having more problems.

    2. Avatar for Robert
      Robert on

      Gus,
      I wiped the SD card and started over. I downloaded the spigot file from the mediafire.com website and all looks right. Again, at step 16 when I try sudo /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/java -Xms512M -Xmx1008M -jar /home/minecraft/spigot-1.8.8.jar nogui I get the following: Error: Unable to access jarful /home/minecraft/spigot-1.8.8.jar.
      Any ideas?

    3. Avatar for Jim
      Jim on

      Hey Robert,

      Do you have Raspbian Jessie? If so, you don’t need the /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/ before java as Java is preinstalled on Jessie.

      Also, did you download the jar file into /home/minecraft or into the root folder?

  15. Avatar for shiroininja
    shiroininja on

    How do I get the server to create a new world? And what are some more performance boosting tips?

    1. Avatar for Colton
      Colton on

      I’m not positive, but I believe that if you delete the worlds folder and reboot, it will create a new world. Or, if you wanted to save the world, just move it out of the server folder and into somewhere else, and because the folder is not there, the server will make a new world.

      Also, if you are looking to upload a world of your own to the server, you could take a world out of the .minecraft folder on your PC and move it into the server folder where the old world used to be.
      Hopefully that made sense.

  16. Avatar for TWalker
    TWalker on

    Spigot-1.8.8.jar is not generating when I run

    “sudo /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/java -jar BuildTools.jar”

    I cannot seem to find this file anywhere. Please help.

    1. Avatar for Andre
      Andre on

      Same problem. I did see the following message that might help.

      Downloaded file: work/minecraft_server.1.8.8.jar with md5: a0671390aa0691e70a950155aab06ffb
      Found good Minecraft hash (a0671390aa0691e70a950155aab06ffb)
      Final mapped jar: work/mapped.ba9a3cce.jar does not exist, creating!
      Exception in thread “main” java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
      at org.objectweb.asm.ByteVector.enlarge(ByteVector.java:335)
      at org.objectweb.asm.ByteVector.putByteArray(ByteVector.java:316)
      at org.objectweb.asm.ClassReader.copyPool(ClassReader.java:363)
      at org.objectweb.asm.ClassWriter.(ClassWriter.java:655)
      at net.md_5.ss.model.ClassInfo.remap(ClassInfo.java:119)
      at net.md_5.ss.SpecialSource.map(SpecialSource.java:96)
      at net.md_5.ss.SpecialSource.main(SpecialSource.java:44)
      Exception in thread “main” java.lang.RuntimeException: Error running command, return status !=0: [java, -jar, BuildData/bin/SpecialSource-2.jar, map, -i, work/minecraft_server.1.8.8.jar, -m, BuildData/mappings/bukkit-1.8.8-cl.csrg, -o, work/mapped.ba9a3cce.jar-cl]
      at org.spigotmc.builder.Builder.runProcess(Builder.java:517)
      at org.spigotmc.builder.Builder.main(Builder.java:280)

      pi@raspberrypi /home/minecraft $ ls
      apache-maven-3.2.5 BuildTools.jar Bukkit Spigot
      BuildData BuildTools.log.txt CraftBukkit work

      pi@raspberrypi /home/minecraft $

    2. Avatar for Gus
      Gus on
      Editor

      Thanks Andre that error is handy. Can you please let me know if this was on the Raspberry 2 or a previous version?

      I’ll test it out and see if I can recreate the error.

    3. Avatar for Brian
      Brian on

      same here, seems like the pi B (old version) doesn’t have enough memory.

      Downloaded file: work/minecraft_server.1.8.8.jar with md5: a0671390aa0691e70a950155aab06ffb
      Found good Minecraft hash (a0671390aa0691e70a950155aab06ffb)
      Final mapped jar: work/mapped.ba9a3cce.jar does not exist, creating!
      Exception in thread “main” java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
      at net.md_5.ss.model.ClassInfo.getParentClasses(ClassInfo.java:91)
      at net.md_5.ss.remapper.EnhancedRemapper.findMethodDeclarer(EnhancedRemapper.java:73)
      —Edited—
      at net.md_5.ss.SpecialSource.main(SpecialSource.java:44)
      Exception in thread “main” java.lang.RuntimeException: Error running command, return status !=0: [java, -jar, BuildData/bin/SpecialSource-2.jar, map, -i, work/minecraft_server.1.8.8.jar, -m, BuildData/mappings/bukkit-1.8.8-cl.csrg, -o, work/mapped.ba9a3cce.jar-cl]
      at org.spigotmc.builder.Builder.runProcess(Builder.java:517)
      at org.spigotmc.builder.Builder.main(Builder.java:280)

    4. Avatar for Brian
      Brian on

      I ended up compiling minecraft with windows, then installed vsfptd on the pi and ftp’d the compiled files across.

      The server is up and running now, however it would probably have been faster to tar the files on the pc, ftp the one file and then extract on the pi

    5. Avatar for Andre
      Andre on

      On the board is shows it as Raspberry Pi B+ V1.2 2014.

      With 512 MB.

      pi@raspberrypi ~ $ free -m
      total used free shared buffers cached
      Mem: 482 54 428 0 8 23
      -/+ buffers/cache: 23 459
      Swap: 99 0 99
      pi@raspberrypi ~ $

    6. Avatar for Vince
      Vince on

      exactly the same thing for me… Raspberry Pi 1 (version B)

  17. Avatar for Aron
    Aron on

    Error: Unable to access jarfile /home/minecraft/spigot-1.8.8.jar

    I’m not sure how ti fix this. i did a search for spigot-1.8.8.jar and could not find it. i have followed your steps. Was good up to this point.

    1. Avatar for Gus
      Gus on
      Editor

      Hi Aron,

      Sounds likely that the buildtools didn’t succeed/didn’t create the spigot file. I have now updated the tutorial so you can download the server file directly .

    2. Avatar for Aron
      Aron on

      Gus, thank you. Once I get home I’ll have a look.

    3. Avatar for Cam
      Cam on

      The Pi is unable to access the Jar file because it’s not the right jar. Spigot has updated since then and now the jar is called something different. Now it is called spigot-1.9.4.jar You need to change the start command for the later versions.

    4. Avatar for Alfredo hehe
      Alfredo hehe on

      1. Create the file that starts the server:
      sudo nano /home/minecraft/start

      …and put this in the file:
      #!/bin/bash
      cd /home/minecraft
      java -Xmx900M -Xms900M -jar spigot-1.8.8.jar nogui

      When you’re done typing that in, press “ctrl-o”, “enter” then “ctrl-x”

      2. Make it executable:
      chmod a+x /home/minecraft/start

      3. Then start the server using the command :
      /home/minecraft/start

    5. Avatar for Max
      Max on

      Do this command to give your root system access to the files
      sudo chmod -R ugo+rw /home/minecraft

  18. Avatar for Bisdak
    Bisdak on

    Hello from a newbie.
    Now that I have my minecraft server up, how do I connect to it to play? Do i have to use another raspberry pi? If I connect from my windows 7 pc, do I have to pay for it just to connect to my server?

    Thanks.

    1. Avatar for wizdude
      wizdude on

      to connect to any minecraft server, including one run by yourself, you need to have an account with Mojang. whenever a client connects to a server, the server validates with Mojang that the account is valid.

      if you haven’t already done so, it’s a once off small purchase. once you have an account you can play online, by yourself, with friends and on your own local network. all upgrades and revisions are provided at no additional cost.

    2. Avatar for Jack Freakazoid
      Jack Freakazoid on

      Not at all.. Just change the option online-mode from true to false in the server.properties file.

  19. Avatar for Carlos
    Carlos on

    Question. I tried to use sudo /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/java –Xms512M –Xmx1008M -jar /home/minecraft/spigot-1.8.8.jar nogui, but it keep telling me Error: Could not find or load main class –Xms512M. Is there any step I miss? If I run sudo /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/java –jar /home/minecraft/spigot-1.8.8.jar nogui, it runs perfectly but I thing is slower.

    1. Avatar for Gus
      Gus on
      Editor

      Hey Carlos,

      I have looked into this and found an error with the formatting of the “-” before the Xms.

      The code below should work correctly and I have also fixed it in the code above.

      sudo /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/java -Xms512M -Xmx1008M -jar /home/minecraft/spigot-1.8.8.jar nogui

    2. Avatar for Carlos
      Carlos on

      Thanks Gus. By the way, your page PI My Lifeup is awesome. Thanks for sharing all this knowledge and information with us.

  20. Avatar for Jarrod Walker
    Jarrod Walker on

    Anyway to add USB flash memory to allow Minecraft to host more people?

    1. Avatar for Danil
      Danil on

      so by setting up a raspberry this way, people from other countries can host the server, no?

    2. Avatar for Alex
      Alex on

      Only by port forwarding your pi

    3. Avatar for Bobby
      Bobby on

      They can yes.

    4. Avatar for Eduardo Osorio
      Eduardo Osorio on

      Although it is possible to create more swaps partitions over USB media, it is not advisable because of the latency of read/write speeds over USB 2.0. It is not as fast as USB 3.0 with an Solid State Disk