Troubleshooting

Permission errors

Symptom: wine: '/home/steam' is not owned by you or similar.

Fix: the container runs as UID 1000. Host directories must match:

sudo chown -R 1000:1000 ./data ./steam-home
./windrose start

SteamCMD fails to install

Symptom: ERROR! Failed to install app.

Checks:

  • STEAM_LOGIN=anonymous in .env (Windrose dedicated allows anonymous downloads)
  • Outbound network reachable: curl -sI https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/
  • WINDROSE_APP_ID=4129620
  • At least 8 GB free disk

Inspect SteamCMD logs:

./windrose shell
cat /home/steam/Steam/logs/stderr.txt
exit

Server not visible to players

Windrose uses an Invite Code, not a server browser:

./windrose invite

If empty, the first-run config did not finish. Check the log:

./windrose logs | grep -i invite

Config keeps reverting

If you edit data/R5/ServerDescription.json while the container runs, the server overwrites it on shutdown. Either:

  • Stop the container before editing, or
  • Use .env and let the entrypoint patch the file (preferred), or
  • Set GENERATE_SETTINGS=false to disable the patcher entirely

Health stuck on starting

The healthcheck has a 5-minute start_period to allow first-run downloads and Wine init. If health stays unhealthy past that:

./windrose status
./windrose logs 200

Look for Starting Windrose dedicated server followed by Wine output. If Wine itself crashes, capture the full log and open an issue on the repo.

Stale Xvfb lock

Symptom: Server is already active for display 99.

The entrypoint removes /tmp/.X99-lock on every start. If it persists:

./windrose down
./windrose start

Out-of-memory

Windrose can spike at startup and during world generation. Check:

docker stats windrose

If the host is constrained, add explicit limits in docker-compose.yml:

deploy:
  resources:
    limits:
      memory: 12G
      cpus: "4.0"

Reduce MAX_PLAYERS if memory pressure persists.

Reset everything 

./windrose down
sudo rm -rf ./data ./steam-home
./windrose start

Destructive. Take a backup first.

Get inside the container 

./windrose shell

Useful from inside:

pgrep -af WindroseServer
ps -u steam
tail -f /tmp/windrose-first-run.log
ls -la /data /home/steam/.wine

Image pull denied

Symptom: Error response from daemon: ... denied.

The container image package on GHCR needs to be public. On github.com:

  1. Profile -> Packages -> windrose-dedicated-server -> Package settings
  2. Change visibility -> Public

Or build locally instead:

./windrose build
IMAGE_REPOSITORY=windrose-dedicated-server IMAGE_TAG=dev ./windrose start