Hey all, long time since I did a article on Opensim. But I am still playing with it all the time. I currently have 3 different stand alone sims running at home using a new Distribution named Diva Distributional.

What is the Diva Distribution. Diva is actually one of the core developers of Opensim, and delicates a lot of her time to not only making it work, but making it work well. She put together a small package called the Diva Distribution, that not only makes it easy to install, it also has an update application to keep your sim up to date. The Diva Distribution is a stand alone mega sim with hypergrid enabled. A mega sim is a 512x512 sim (four times larger than normal sim) which are new.  Stand alone means that this is not using Grid mode, which is what we set up in the past. But this is not a bad thing, the line between stand alone and grid mode, is really starting to blur with all the work they have done. Hypergrid means you can teleport from your opensim, to your friends. Its awesome!

Today we are going to set it up on a OpenSuse 11.1 Server.

What you will need.

A extra computer

I would suggest it be at least 1000mhz, and 2 gigs of ram, and 10 gigs of harddrive space. 

Blank DVD to burn the OpenSuse 11.1 on

Step 1 - Get OpenSuse 11.1

Download the latest DVD of OpenSuse 11.1. OpenSuse is a OS based on linux.  

Step 2 - Start installing OpenSuse 11.1

WARNING - This step will remove all the data on the computer we are installing this on. So please make sure you know what your doing here.

After having successfully downloaded the ISO image, burn the image with your favorite burning application to a DVD or CD. Please do not burn a data DVD/CD, but rather choose the option to burn an ISO image.

Boot from the DVD or CD. In case your computer does not automatically boot from CD/DVD, open the BIOS setup to allow booting from CD or DVD.

Start the installation of OpenSuse.

At some point it asks you about what interface you would like to install, and gives you choices like KDE, and GNOME. When you reach here choose other, then choose none (server text based). 

Finish the rest of the install.

Step 3 - Updates

First thing we want to do is make sure everything is up to date. After logging in you want to issue the following command to update your new server.

sudo zypper upgrade

Step 4 Install MySQl

Issue the following command to install MySQL:

sudo zypper install mysql 

Step 5 - Installing Mono

Issue the following command

sudo zypper install mono-core

sudo zypper install mono-jscript

sudo zypper install mono-data-oracle

Next we need to add a repository to Zypper (which stalls application on this os). Issue the following command:

sudo zypper addrepo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Mono/openSUSE_11.1 mono-stable

suod zypper dist-update --repo mono-stable

suod zypper dist-upgrade --repo mono-stable

Test to make sure you have the latest version of mono installed with this command:

mono -V 

Step 6 - Couple other things you need to install

Just a couple more things we need to install. Issue the following commands: 

sudo zypper install nano

sudo zypper install subversion

sudo zypper install nant 

Step 7 - Setup mySQL 

First thing we need to do is start mySQL up with the following command:

sudo /usr/sbin/rcmysql start

Now we need to set the root password:

mysqladmin -u root password 'your_password_here'

And finally OpenSuse gives us a nice script to secure everything by issueing this command:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Now we need to add a opensim database and user:

mysql -u root -p -h localhost

create database opensim;

create user opensim identified by 'your_password_here';

grant all on opensim.* to opensim;

quit;

Step 8 - Installing the Diva Distro

Almost finished. We need to download the latest version. Go here and get the url and replace belows if it has changed and isse this command:

wget http://cloud.github.com/downloads/diva/diva-distribution/diva-r11324.zip

unzip diva-r11324.zip

Step 9 - Configure the OpenSim

Now we need to configure the Diva Distro by changing your to it "bin" directory:

cd diva-r11324/bin

sudo mono Configure.exe

Go through and answer all the questions. When it asks for an IP address for this sim to be accessed at, choose either a domain name you have pointed to your router, or your external IP address to the world.

Step 10 - Forward the ports on your router and disable firewall

Next you need to forward port 9000 to 9003 on your router. The instructions on how to do this are different for every router, so I can't tell you how.

Now we need to disable the firewall on the OpenSuse box with this command:

bash /etc/init.d/SuSEfirewall2_setup stop

Step 11 - Start up your Diva Distro

Issue the following command to start up your Diva Distribution.

sudo mono OpenSim.exe

Step 12 - Logging in

Now you can log in and have fun in your OpenSim.  To do this you need to make a custom shortcut to your favorite second life viewer. Add to the end of that shortcut " -loginuri http://your_external_ip_address:9000"

By default the only user is "Master Avatar" and you gave him a password when you ran the Configure.exe application.

First thing you want to do when you get in world. Make new Hair, Shape, Skin, Clothes, so on.. and wear them. Hair is the most import, you won't see your shape until you wear it.  

Step 13 - Have fun

Welcome to your very own world. Have fun in it :)