Installing Paper Minecraft on Ubuntu 24.04: Issues I Ran Into & How I Fixed Them

Source: Dev.to

Introduction

I’ve been hosting game servers for years, but I recently decided to take a deeper dive into Linux server administration to strengthen my skills and prepare for IT roles professionally. This post documents my journey setting up a Paper Minecraft server on Ubuntu Server 24.04, including the challenges I ran into and how I solved them. My goal is to share practical troubleshooting tips while building a portfolio of hands‑on Linux experience.

Step 1: Installing Java for Paper

Fix: Installed Java 21 (the current supported version for Paper).

Lesson: Always check the Minecraft server’s Java requirements before starting. Installing the wrong version can break your server.

Step 2: Dealing with the Keyboard Layout

Fix: Switched the VM keyboard layout to Swedish, matching my physical keyboard.

Tip: This is a common issue when working in virtual machines with non‑US keyboards.

Step 3: Downloading the Paper Server JAR

Fix: Switched to curl with -L -o paper.jar, which downloaded the file quickly and more reliably.

curl -L -o paper.jar https://example.com/paper.jar

Tip: Some servers redirect URLs, which wget may not handle properly. curl -L automatically follows redirects for you.

Step 4: Networking & SSH

Fix: Switched to a Bridged Adapter, which put the VM on the same network as my host machine, allowing SSH access.

Tip: Networking issues are common in virtual machines; bridging or port forwarding usually solves them.

Step 5: Running the Server

After the above fixes, the server started successfully with the standard launch command:

java -Xms1G -Xmx2G -jar paper.jar nogui

Lessons Learned

• VM settings matter: Keyboard layouts and networking can break things quickly.
• Check Java version requirements: Paper will not run on unsupported versions.
• Know your download tools: curl is usually more reliable for redirected downloads.
• Document troubleshooting: Keeping notes makes future setups much easier.