An old Framework and a big drive can be a pretty decent Minecraft Server for you and your friends, or even a whole community server with the higher end models, using CasaOS and Crafty. I will be detailing how to go from a wiped drive Framework, into a fully functional Minecraft Java Server, so lets get into it!
What you’ll need
- A Keyboard (and maybe a Mouse)
- Framework Mainboard with at least 4GB of Ram for reliable use
- Some sort of drive, NVME or USB, for the OS (How to boot from USB)
- Some way to install Debian, either NetBoot, USB, or however method you wish. This guide will be based of installing Debian rom USB. (Setting up NetBoot if thats your thing)
I recommend you use a Monitor, however most of this can be done through SSH. Setting up PlayIt does from my knowledge require access to the Desktop Environment, so you can use VNC Server if you need too.
You will also need some sort of internet connection for the Mainboard you are turning into a server, very preferably Ethernet due to WI-FI having stability issues sometimes.
Step 1 Setting up the USB
Get balenaEtcher here for whatever OS you have on your machine your using for setup.
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Open balenaEtcher and click “Flash from URL”
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Go here and right click on the amd64 link, then copy link address.
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Then, paste that address into balenaEtcher
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Choose your USB Drive, and click write, you should be good to go once it’s done.
Step 2 Booting into Debain 11 or 12
First, plug your USB Drive into your Computer, turn it on, press F12 (or your Boot Option key), and you should get the option to boot from USB.
You should see the Debian Installer, which looks like this.
I chose Graphical Install, but if you want a non graphical install you can go right ahead, but the rest of this step may not apply to you.
- You can pretty much continue through the whole thing setting your region and stuff until this part.
Here you will set your Sudo password for terminal, which you will need to install CasaOS later.
You will also need to make a User, here I just made the name framework.
You will then be asked if you want to partition your disks after a few more installation steps, make sure to click yes or else it will send you back a step and wait until you say yes.
I don’t have a screenshot for this part, but you will be asked what desktop environment you want to use. I just used the default Gnome, but you can also use a different one like XFCE if you like a lighter-weight Windows-like desktop.
After a little bit of installing, you should reach the end of the installer where you can now reboot into Debian!
Step 3: Setting up CasaOS
Once you’ve booted, select your user of choice in order to get into the OS.
Debian may ask you for some extra preferences, set them as you want and such and you’ll be fine.
Now your going to click on activities in the top right if your using the GNOME desktop, and open Terminal from your applications.
If this is your first time using Linux, don’t be scared, its only one command we will be typing now. Just in case, if you haven’t already, connect to the internet.
The command we are going to type is
wget -qO- https://get.casaos.io | sudo bash
Go ahead and mash that in and click enter.
You should now see the CasaOS install screen, let it install and enter your password if prompted.
Once completed CasaOS will give you an IP to access the GUI from your main computer, go ahead and type that into your browser of choice and continue.
Once in CasaOS will ask you to create an account, where you will then enter this beautiful GUI.
From here we can enter the AppStore and do pretty much anything we want, which leads me to my next steps, turning this mainboard into a Minecraft Server.
Step 4: Setting Up Crafty
First go to the App Store and download Crafty, I already had it installed in this screenshot but it should be pretty straightfoward.
Crafty will then tell you where its default credentials are located after it finishes installing, these can be changed later if you want too but for the purposes of this guide we are just going to locate and use them.
First open files and go into the AppData Directory, then go to Crafty, then go to Config. (or Files>AppData>Crafty>Config if it makes it more readable)
You should see the default credentials in here.
Click on the file, copy the password, and exit Files.
Now we can open Crafty, and login using the default username “Admin” and the password we just copied.
Now we should see a screen that looks something like this, all we are going to do here is create a new server.
From here you can really do whatever version of server you want, just make sure to choose Minecraft Server in Crafty and not Minecraft Proxy.
Here is the config I went with, I used Paper as my Server Software due to it being lightweight and allowing me to add Spigot Plugins.
Once you have your settings complete, just click build server!
You should then see your sever appear in the “All Servers” section in Crafty. Click on it, then click start!
It will ask you to agree to the Minecraft EULA from there, make sure to click Yes.
Your server should now start up if you’ve done everything correctly.
Lets test it! Scroll up from the menu you were just in and click config, then scroll down, you should see the servers Local IP and Port to connect to it.
And the server works! If you have issues connecting, try using the Direct Connect feature in Minecraft, or find your Frameworks real IP on your network using ifconfig or using whatever tool you like.
You could stop here now, but this server only works on the local network, so lets setup a way to get our server online for our friends without portfowarding.
Step 5 Setting up Playit
We’re going to need to go back to our Debian Desktop now, so if you haven’t already plug the server Framework back into your display.
Open Terminal and copy these commands:
wget https://github.com/playit-cloud/playit-agent/releases/download/v0.15.0/playit-linux-amd64
chmod +x playit-linux-amd64
./playit-linux-amd64
Once complete you will be prompted to go to a link. From here you can create a PlayIt account or log in to one, for the purposes of this guide however I will be using a guest account, so I will click create an account, and then create a Guest Account. Please do not do this if you plan on using a server long term!
PlayIt will then find your server and ask if you want to add it, click continue.
Once playit has configured itself, it will ask you to create a tunnel, click it!
Now we can choose the server we want, which would be Minecraft:Java Edition
And from there PlayIt should auto configure it and make your server avaliable online! You should see the public IP you can join from on the top.
With that IP we can now connect to our server and test it, and get some friends on too!
Sadly I don’t have any friends to test my server, but if you can join your server via a VPN like I’m doing to test here, then your friends will be able to join fine via their home IP without having to be on your local network.
And it works!
We are all done here. Share your server IP around and have some fun!
If this guide worked for you, awesome! Maybe consider throwing me a tip via my DogeCoin Address so I can get closer to getting my Framework! (I made this guide without even having one!) And try playing my game!
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If anything here didn’t work for you, let me know, I’ll try to help. And if you want me to expand on this guide, like adding Bedrock support as well for your Java Server, let me know as well!