What you really want, probably, is to create a minecraft service in init.d . I found one at gamepedia that I have modified slightly into this (still needs work, though):
#!/bin/bash
# /etc/init.d/minecraft
# version 0.3.9 2012-08-13 (YYYY-MM-DD)
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: minecraft
# Required-Start: $local_fs $remote_fs
# Required-Stop: $local_fs $remote_fs
# Should-Start: $network
# Should-Stop: $network
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Minecraft server
# Description: Starts the minecraft server
### END INIT INFO
#Settings
SERVICE='minecraft_server.jar'
OPTIONS='nogui'
USERNAME='minecraft'
WORLD='world'
MCPATH='/home/minecraft'
MCLOG='logs/latest.log'
BACKUPPATH='/home/minecraft/backup'
MAXHEAP=2048
MINHEAP=512
HISTORY=1024
CPU_COUNT=1
INVOCATION="java -Xmx${MAXHEAP}M -Xms${MINHEAP}M -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC \
-XX:+CMSIncrementalPacing -XX:+AggressiveOpts -jar $SERVICE $OPTIONS"
ME=`whoami`
as_user() {
#sudo -u minecraft $1
if [ $ME == $USERNAME ] ; then
bash -c "$1"
else
su -s /bin/bash $USERNAME -c "$1"
fi
}
mc_start() {
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is already running!"
else
echo "Starting $SERVICE..."
cd $MCPATH
echo "In $MCPATH"
as_user "screen -h $HISTORY -dmS minecraft $INVOCATION"
sleep 7
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is now running."
else
echo "Error! Could not start $SERVICE!"
fi
fi
}
mc_saveoff() {
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is running... suspending saves"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"say SERVER BACKUP STARTING. Server going readonly...\"\015'"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"save-off\"\015'"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"save-all\"\015'"
sync
sleep 10
else
echo "$SERVICE is not running. Not suspending saves."
fi
}
mc_saveon() {
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is running... re-enabling saves"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"save-on\"\015'"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"say SERVER BACKUP ENDED. Server going read-write...\"\015'"
else
echo "$SERVICE is not running. Not resuming saves."
fi
}
mc_stop() {
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "Stopping $SERVICE"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"say SERVER SHUTTING DOWN IN 10 SECONDS. Saving map...\"\015'"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"save-all\"\015'"
sleep 10
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"stop\"\015'"
sleep 7
else
echo "$SERVICE was not running."
fi
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "Error! $SERVICE could not be stopped."
else
echo "$SERVICE is stopped."
fi
}
mc_update() {
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is running! Will not start update."
else
MC_SERVER_URL=http://s3.amazonaws.com/MinecraftDownload/launcher/minecraft_server.jar?v=`date | sed "s/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/_/g"`
as_user "cd $MCPATH && wget -q -O $MCPATH/minecraft_server.jar.update $MC_SERVER_URL"
if [ -f $MCPATH/minecraft_server.jar.update ]
then
if `diff $MCPATH/$SERVICE $MCPATH/minecraft_server.jar.update >/dev/null`
then
echo "You are already running the latest version of $SERVICE."
else
as_user "mv $MCPATH/minecraft_server.jar.update $MCPATH/$SERVICE"
echo "Minecraft successfully updated."
fi
else
echo "Minecraft update could not be downloaded."
fi
fi
}
mc_backup() {
mc_saveoff
NOW=`date "+%Y-%m-%d_%Hh%M"`
BACKUP_FILE="$BACKUPPATH/${WORLD}_${NOW}.tar"
echo "Backing up minecraft world..."
#as_user "cd $MCPATH && cp -r $WORLD $BACKUPPATH/${WORLD}_`date "+%Y.%m.%d_%H.%M"`"
as_user "tar -C \"$MCPATH\" -cf \"$BACKUP_FILE\" $WORLD"
echo "Backing up $SERVICE"
as_user "tar -C \"$MCPATH\" -rf \"$BACKUP_FILE\" $SERVICE"
#as_user "cp \"$MCPATH/$SERVICE\" \"$BACKUPPATH/minecraft_server_${NOW}.jar\""
mc_saveon
echo "Compressing backup..."
as_user "gzip -f \"$BACKUP_FILE\""
echo "Done."
}
mc_command() {
command="$1";
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
pre_log_len=`wc -l "$MCPATH/$MCLOG" | awk '{print $1}'`
echo "$SERVICE is running... executing command"
as_user "screen -p 0 -S minecraft -X eval 'stuff \"$command\"\015'"
sleep 1 # assumes that the command will run and print to the log file in less than .1 seconds
# print output
tail -n $[`wc -l "$MCPATH/$MCLOG" | awk '{print $1}'`-$pre_log_len] "$MCPATH/$MCLOG"
fi
}
mc_log() {
cat $MCPATH/$MCLOG
}
#Start-Stop here
case "$1" in
start)
mc_start
;;
stop)
mc_stop
;;
restart)
mc_stop
mc_start
;;
update)
mc_stop
mc_backup
mc_update
mc_start
;;
backup)
mc_backup
;;
status)
if pgrep -u $USERNAME -f $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is running."
else
echo "$SERVICE is not running."
fi
;;
command)
if [ $# -gt 1 ]; then
shift
mc_command "$*"
else
echo "Must specify server command (try 'help'?)"
fi
;;
log)
mc_log
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|update|backup|status|restart|log|command \"server command\"}"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0
Once this script is placed in /etc/init.d it will start the minecraft server automatically when the system is ready, and shut the server down when the system goes down. You can interact with the server by running
service minecraft {start|stop|update|backup|status|restart|log|command "server command"}
Please do note, however, that you will probably need to configure the minecraft server to hold a limited world and turn down the visibility range slightly to allow the pi to keep up.
rc.local, you probably have to use&at the end to fork it, unless it does that already. You could also try/path/to/start.sh &> /tmp/start.sh.log &(the&>redirects output) to see if this provides any clues about why it isn't working. – goldilocks♦ Mar 6 '15 at 14:40start.shthat long? Paste it in. – goldilocks♦ Mar 6 '15 at 15:30