Troubleshooting valve HLDS-SRCDS

From Whisper's Wiki

How to Troubleshoot Valve's Half-Life Dedicated Server (HLDS) and Source Dedicated Server (SRCDS)

1. Run the HLDSUpdatetool.exe from the c:\hlds\ c:\srcds\ directory with the -verify_all option set eg. HldsUpdateTool.exe -command update -dir "Counter-Strike Source" -game "Counter-Strike Source" -verify_all
   
2. Remove any Addons\Mods\Plugins you have installed, you can do this easily by renaming the \cstrike\addons\ directory for example to something else. eg c:\hlds\Counter-Strike\cstrike\addons\ or c:\srcds\Counter-Strike Source\cstrike\addons\ to c:\hlds\Counter-Strike\cstrike\addons.bak\ or c:\srcds\Counter-Strike Source\cstrike\addons.bak\
   • If your server starts running fine then it is one of your Addons\Mods\Plugins causing the problem and you will have to go through the process of removing them one at a time and the restarting your server. The easiest way to do this is to make a copy of your addons folder called \cstrike\addons.bak\ then deleting Addons\Mods\Plugins one at a time from the \cstrike\addons\ directory until your server starts running correctly.
   • \cstrike\addons\ is not a folder created by default with HLDSUpdatetool.exe
3. Try removing any configs you have, you can do this easily for SRCDS by renaming the \cstrike\cfg\ directory to something else. eg c:\srcds\Counter-Strike Source\cstrike\cfg\ to c:\srcds\Counter-Strike Source\cstrike\cfg.bak\ for HLDS the config files get dumped straight to the c:\hlds\Counter-Strike\cstrike\ directory so moving them is your only real option.
   • Make sure you have the \addons\ directory also effectively removed by renaming it to \cstrike\addon.bak\ as described above.
   • If your server starts functioning, then try putting your \addons\ directory back, and then see if your HLDS\SRCDS still works, if it does, and you can verify that the Addons\Mods\Plugins are loading, albeit not properly configured, then you have probably misconfigured something for one of those Addons\Mods\Plugins.
   • For HLDS many Addons\Mods\Plugins keep their config in the directory under \cstrike\addons\ directory
4. If removing the \cstrike\addons\ & \cstrike\cfg\ directories does not help you, try starting your HLDS/SRCDS with a minimal startup commandline. eg. d:\srcds\Counter-Strike Source\srcds.exe -console -game cstrike
   
5. There are some files that are directly under your particular games folder, in this example c:\srcds\Counter-Strike Source\cstrike\ that are replaced by HLDSUpdatetool.exe. Sometimes people do things to try to stop HLDSUpdatetool.exe from updating them. Either move them from their current location to somewhere else or delete the files only (not any directories under \cstrike\ in this example) and then re-run HLDSUpdatetool.exe with the -verify_all option, then see if your HLDS\SRCDS runs correctly.
   • botchatter.db
   • botprofile.db
   • credits.txt
   • detail.vbsp
   • dxsupport_override.cfg
   • gameinfo.txt
   • mapcycle.txt
   • maplist.txt
   • motd.txt
   • steam.inf
6. If none of that helps, get a fresh copy of HLDSUpdatetool.exe from Valve, then run HLDSUpdatetool.exe pointed to a completely different directory name, c:\srcdstest\ for example. This will cause the latest version of HLDSUpdatetool.exe to be downloaded to the c:\srcdstest\ directory, at which point you run c:\srcdstest\HldsUpdateTool.exe -command update -game "Counter-Strike Source" -verify_all which will install a full default Counter-Strike Source SRCDS to the newly created c:\srcdstest\ directory.
7. If this fails, you most likely have a Operating System, Hardware, or third party sofware problem, just so long as you are in the minority of people who are having the problem. At this point things become even more difficult as the troubleshooting advice above is pretty much generic for all types of HLDS/SRCDS installations regardless of Operating System.

Finally, before posting to the HLDS Mailing Lists or STEAM HLDS/SRCDS Forums, make it clear to everybody that you have followed the steps above, otherwise that is what people are going to ask you to do. When you do ask your question please post your commandline startup and server.cfg contents as well as a list of any Addons\Mods\Plugins you are running along with their version numbers and the Operating System with version number, especially when dealing with Linux.

Here is an example of HLDS and SRCDS Directory structures for Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike:Source

The rationale for the directory structures I have used is so you can easily distinguish between HLDS & SRCDS installations on the same Hard Disk Drive, and then be able to differentiate between games that sit under each HLDS\SRCDS installation. eg. CS, DoD, HLMP for HLDS or CS:S, DoD:S, HL2MP for SRCDS.

HLDS Update Tool can be downloaded for their respective Operating Systems here: Windows and Linux

This is not the actual HLDSUpdatetool.exe you will use to download your copy of HLDS or SRCDS. What this will do, is download the latest version of HLDSUpdatetool.exe which you then use to download/update your copy of HLDS/SRCDS for the particular game you want.

Further Instructions for HLDSUpdatetool can be found here for Windows and Linux