road-poneglyph 0.2.0

A Linux dedicated game server launcher for Palworld and ARK: Survival Evolved — manages steamcmd, systemd, and polkit on Debian/Ubuntu.

road-poneglyph

A multi-game dedicated server launcher for Linux. road-poneglyph installs, configures, and manages Palworld and ARK: Survival Evolved servers on Debian and Ubuntu using systemd and Polkit (Palworld) or arkmanager wrapped by a NOPASSWD sudoers fragment (ARK). Day-to-day start/stop/restart of Palworld needs no sudo at all; ARK management uses sudo -u steam arkmanager ... without a password prompt thanks to the installed /etc/sudoers.d/road-poneglyph-ark fragment.

Features

• Two games, one CLI: road-poneglyph palworld <verb> installs a native systemd service for PalServer; road-poneglyph ark <verb> installs ark-server-tools (arkmanager) and wraps every verb.
• Automated installation: downloads SteamCMD, pulls the right app (Palworld app id 2394010 or ARK: Survival Evolved app id 376030), and writes a systemd unit.
• Package manager repair: attempts to fix common apt/dpkg breakage before running steamcmd.
• Merged Polkit rule: a single /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/40-road-poneglyph.rules authorises the invoking user to start/stop/restart every known game service unit without sudo.
• ARK sudoers fragment: /etc/sudoers.d/road-poneglyph-ark lets the invoking user run sudo -u steam /usr/local/bin/arkmanager * with no password prompt.
• Opt-in autostart for ARK: arkserver.service is NOT installed by default. Pass --enable-autostart to road-poneglyph ark install to write and enable the systemd unit; without the flag, manage the server exclusively through road-poneglyph ark start/stop/... (which call arkmanager directly — no systemd unit needed).
• Interactive settings editor: edit-settings parses the per-game config file (PalWorldSettings.ini for Palworld, /etc/arkmanager/instances/main.cfg for ARK) and lets you change values interactively.

Prerequisites

• A Debian 12+/13 or Ubuntu 22.04+/24.04 server (Linux only).
• sudo privileges for the user running road-poneglyph.
• Python 3.8 or newer.
• For ARK only: apt components contrib non-free (Debian) or multiverse (Ubuntu). road-poneglyph ark install enables contrib non-free on Debian automatically; Ubuntu server images ship multiverse by default.

Installation

pip install road-poneglyph

The PyPI distribution is named road-poneglyph; the installed CLI binary is road-poneglyph. A pipx install also works if you prefer an isolated user-level environment:

pipx install road-poneglyph

Migration from palworld-server-launcher v0.1.19

road-poneglyph v0.2.0 replaces the older palworld-server-launcher v0.1.19 package. Read this section before upgrading — the distribution rename means a pip install --upgrade on the old name will NOT pull v0.2.0.

• PyPI distribution renamed. v0.1.19 shipped as palworld-server-launcher; v0.2.0 ships as road-poneglyph. pip install --upgrade palworld-server-launcher will not find v0.2.0 — the name changed.

• Recommended path: fresh install. Install the new distribution rather than trying to upgrade in place:

  pip install road-poneglyph
  pip uninstall palworld-server-launcher   # safe — separate distribution
  

• CLI entry point changed. The old binary was palworld-server-launcher; the new binary is road-poneglyph. Update shell aliases, cron entries, or shell scripts that invoke the legacy name.

• Your existing Palworld server keeps working. v0.1.19 installed /etc/systemd/system/palserver.service and game files under ~/Steam/steamapps/common/PalServer. v0.2.0 operates on the same systemd unit and the same directory — road-poneglyph palworld start, stop, restart, status all target the service your v0.1.19 install created. No reinstall is required just to adopt the new CLI name.

• Manual Polkit cleanup (POL-04). v0.1.19 wrote /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/40-palserver.rules. v0.2.0 writes /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/40-road-poneglyph.rules instead — the merged rule covers every known game service unit. Polkit merges rule files additively, so the two files coexist harmlessly. Once you have confirmed that road-poneglyph palworld start / stop / restart work without a password under v0.2.0, remove the old rule:

  sudo rm /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/40-palserver.rules
  

Quick Start

Palworld

# Install at port 8211 with a 16-player cap and start immediately
road-poneglyph palworld install --port 8211 --players 16 --start

ARK: Survival Evolved

# Install with the admin password you want to use (or omit --admin-password for a
# hidden prompt) and start the server
road-poneglyph ark install --map TheIsland --admin-password 'your-strong-password' --start

If you prefer not to pick a password yourself, use --generate-password and road-poneglyph will generate a 128-bit url-safe admin password and print it once.

Palworld Usage (road-poneglyph palworld <verb>)

Every Palworld verb targets the native palserver.service systemd unit. Start/stop/restart run without sudo thanks to /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/40-road-poneglyph.rules.

# Install (downloads SteamCMD, pulls PalServer, writes palserver.service)
road-poneglyph palworld install --port 8211 --players 32 --start

Creates the systemd unit at port 8211 with a 32-player cap and starts the server right away.

road-poneglyph palworld start

Starts palserver.service via systemctl start (no sudo required).

road-poneglyph palworld stop

Stops the server gracefully.

road-poneglyph palworld restart

Restarts the service — useful after editing PalWorldSettings.ini.

road-poneglyph palworld status

Shows current service status (systemctl status palserver).

road-poneglyph palworld enable

Enables palserver.service at boot.

road-poneglyph palworld disable

Disables palserver.service at boot.

road-poneglyph palworld update

Re-runs SteamCMD against the Palworld app id and leaves the service untouched. Restart the service afterwards to pick up changes.

road-poneglyph palworld edit-settings

Opens an interactive editor against PalWorldSettings.ini, preserving unknown keys.

ARK Usage (road-poneglyph ark <verb>)

The ARK integration is an arkmanager (ark-server-tools) wrapper. road-poneglyph ark install creates a dedicated steam system user, drops /etc/sudoers.d/road-poneglyph-ark to allow the invoking user to call sudo -u steam /usr/local/bin/arkmanager * without a password, and writes /etc/arkmanager/instances/main.cfg. An arkserver.service unit is written only when --enable-autostart is passed at install time; otherwise no systemd unit exists for ARK and day-to-day management goes through arkmanager directly via road-poneglyph ark <verb>.

Valid maps (12 supported): TheIsland, TheCenter, ScorchedEarth_P, Aberration_P, Extinction, Ragnarok, Valguero_P, CrystalIsles, LostIsland, Fjordur, Genesis, Genesis2.

# Minimal install
road-poneglyph ark install --admin-password 'strong-password'

# Full-featured install: autostart on boot, custom session name, start now
road-poneglyph ark install \
    --map Ragnarok \
    --port 7778 --query-port 27015 --rcon-port 27020 \
    --players 20 \
    --session-name 'MyArkServer' \
    --admin-password 'strong-password' \
    --beta preaquatica \
    --enable-autostart --start

Runs a full arkmanager install: enables the required apt components on Debian, creates the steam user, fetches ark-server-tools, writes main.cfg, and optionally enables boot autostart.

road-poneglyph ark start

Runs sudo -u steam /usr/local/bin/arkmanager start — boots the ARK server via arkmanager.

road-poneglyph ark stop

Graceful shutdown via arkmanager stop (saves world).

road-poneglyph ark restart

Runs arkmanager restart.

road-poneglyph ark status

arkmanager status — shows running state and connected players.

road-poneglyph ark saveworld

Forces a world save via arkmanager saveworld (uses RCON under the hood).

road-poneglyph ark backup

Creates a save backup via arkmanager backup.

road-poneglyph ark update

Updates the ARK server. Runs arkmanager update --validate --beta=preaquatica twice on purpose — steamcmd has a known first-run self-update quirk where the first invocation only updates steamcmd itself; the second invocation does the actual game update.

road-poneglyph ark enable

Enables arkserver.service at boot. Only effective if arkserver.service exists — pass --enable-autostart to road-poneglyph ark install if you did not already.

road-poneglyph ark disable

Disables arkserver.service from starting at boot.

road-poneglyph ark edit-settings

Opens an interactive editor against /etc/arkmanager/instances/main.cfg (arkmanager's instance config). It does NOT edit GameUserSettings.ini — arkmanager owns that file; editing it by hand is unsupported.

Firewall / Port Reference

road-poneglyph does NOT manage your firewall. Open the ports below yourself (example ufw rules included).

Game	Protocol	Port	Purpose
Palworld	UDP	8211	Game + query (single port)
ARK	UDP	7777	Game port (implicit in arkmanager)
ARK	UDP	7778	ark_Port raw socket
ARK	UDP	27015	ark_QueryPort Steam query
ARK	TCP	27020	ark_RCONPort RCON admin

Example ufw rules:

# Palworld
sudo ufw allow 8211/udp

# ARK
sudo ufw allow 7777/udp
sudo ufw allow 7778/udp
sudo ufw allow 27015/udp
sudo ufw allow 27020/tcp

Permissions & Security Model

Palworld. The merged Polkit rule at /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/40-road-poneglyph.rules grants the installing user permission to invoke org.freedesktop.systemd1.manage-units on palserver.service (and every other registered game service unit) without sudo. You can verify the grant with:

pkcheck --action-id=org.freedesktop.systemd1.manage-units \
        --process $$ --allow-user-interaction

No part of the Palworld flow edits /etc/sudoers or asks for a password after installation.

ARK. The arkmanager tool runs as a dedicated steam system user, so every ARK verb is really sudo -u steam /usr/local/bin/arkmanager .... road-poneglyph ark install writes /etc/sudoers.d/road-poneglyph-ark, which grants the installing user exactly NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/arkmanager * — no broader sudo rights, no wildcard path, no ALL=(ALL) clause. This is the minimum permission surface that still lets you run road-poneglyph ark start, stop, saveworld, backup, etc. without being prompted for a password.

Version

road-poneglyph --version

Supported OS

• Debian 12 (bookworm) and Debian 13 (trixie).
• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
• Linux only. macOS and Windows are not supported.
• ARK prerequisite: contrib non-free apt components on Debian (enabled automatically by road-poneglyph ark install), or multiverse on Ubuntu (already present on stock Ubuntu server images).

License

MIT — see LICENSE.