PaperSpigot is a high performance fork of Spigot that aims to fix gameplay and mechanics inconsistencies. Paper contains numerous unique features and changes, including many performance improvements not found in Spigot. In this guide, we will setup PaperSpigot on an Ubuntu Server.

Setting up the Ubuntu Server

It is recommended to run all commands as a user with sudo privileges that is not root.

Start by ensuring that your server is up to date.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

Install the needed packages.

sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre -y

Create a swap file

Allocate the desired amount of memory. Replace 1G accordingly.

sudo fallocate -l 1G /swapfile

Secure the permissions of your new swap file.

sudo chmod 600 /swapfile

Allocate the swap space.

sudo mkswap /swapfile

Turn on swap.

sudo swapon /swapfile

Make your swap file permanent by modifying the fstab file.

sudo vim /etc/fstab

Add this line to the bottom of the file.

/swapfile   none    swap    sw    0   0

Install PaperSpigot

Ensure you are in the home directory of the user you are planning to use to install PaperSpigot.

cd ~

Create a folder for PaperSpigot.

mkdir paper
cd paper

wget -O paperclip.jar https://ci.destroystokyo.com/job/PaperSpigot/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/paperclip.jar

This will download the latest build of PaperSpigot. If you would like to use a different Minecraft version, replace lastSuccessfulBuild with a corresponding build number which you can find here.

Starting Your Server

Create a start up script for your server.

vim start.sh

Make start.sh match the following, replacing 1024M with the amount of RAM installed on your server.

#!/bin/sh

java -Xms512M -Xmx1024M -XX:MaxPermSize=128M -jar paperclip.jar

Make start.sh executable.

chmod +x start.sh

Start your server.

./start.sh

The first time you start your server, it will download files necessary to setup PaperSpigot. After the first run, your server will launch faster.

Optional: Run your server in the background

Install screen.

sudo apt-get install screen -y

Open an instance of screen.

screen -S "paper"

Start your server script.

cd ~/paper
./start.sh

You can now configure your server’s settings and install plugins.

Troubleshooting

Accept EULA.

If you are asked to confirm eula.txt, change eula to true.

vim eula.txt

paperclip.jar wont run?

You need more RAM on your server or a larger swap file.

start.sh can’t run the file command on your jar file?

Check to ensure everything is typed exactly the same, Linux IS case sensitive.