Server on Linux
Important Foreward
First, a disclaimer: Strange Loop Games does provide a Linux server build, but they do not offer official support for it at this time. It is provided as a convenience, not a product.
If you run into trouble or have a question, you can make inquiries in the #server-help channel in the Eco Discord, but keep in mind the information above.
Prerequisites
Mono No More
Prior to version 9.0 of Eco, it was required that you run with a very old build (no later than 5.14) of the Mono development libraries, and use Mono to run the server. This is no longer the case.
.NET Core Libraries
Eco is now built with and is run leveraging .NET Core, and runs as a native binary on Linux. You will have to install the .NET Core 3.1 libraries, repositories for which Microsoft makes available for several Linux distributions. Follow the directions on Microsoft's site for instructions for installing the libraries.
Eco Dedicated Server files
There are two primary options for acquisition of the Eco dedicated server: getting it directly from Strange Loop Games, or through Valve Software's Steam platform.
Steam Command-Line Client
Getting SteamCMD
The ECO Dedicated Server is made available through Valve Software's Steam distribution system, and Valve provides a command-line tool called SteamCMD to facilitate command-line installation of products in various environments, including Linux. Follow the directions on the foregoing link to get the SteamCMD program installed and configured on your system. You will not need SteamCMD if you are acquiring the Eco Dedicated Server directly from Strange Loop Games.
Installing Eco with SteamCMD
Presuming for the same of simplicity that you wish to install the Eco Dedicated Server into an Eco subdirectory of your home directory, a script such as the following will install and subsequently update the software for you:
#!/bin/bash
steamcmd +login anonymous +force_install_dir ~/Eco +app_update 739590 -beta default validate +quit
SLG Direct Download
An archive of the current release of the Eco Dedicated Server as of this writing (Beta 9.0.2) can be found here. The following series of commands will download the archive, and set the Eco Dedicated Server up in an Eco subdirectory of your home directory, and save a copy of the install archive into a dist subdirectory of your home directory:
mkdir -p ~/Eco
cd ~/Eco
wget https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/eco-releases/EcoServerLinux_v0.9.0.2-beta.zip
unzip EcoServerLinux_v0.9.0.2-beta.zip
mkdir -p ~/dist
mv EcoServerLinux_v0.9.0.2-beta.zip ~/dist/
Starting the Server
Because the Eco Dedicated Server is now a native Linux binary, starting it could not be easier. Again, presuming it is installed in an Eco subdirectory of your home:
cd ~/Eco
./EcoServer
Stopping the Server
To safely shut down the Eco server, send SIGINT or press Control+C with the EcoServer process interactively to initiate a safe shutdown.
Please not that this procedure doesn't work with Eco versions prior to 9.0.0-beta.
Troubleshooting
Missing GDI library
You may sometimes get a crash on an attempted initial startup with an error resembling the following:
Failed to load server, Exception was Exception: DllNotFoundException Message:Unable to load shared library 'libgdiplus' or one of its dependencies.
The solution to this error state is to simply install the missing library. On a Debian-derived host this can be done with:
sudo apt install libgdiplus