The "Can Build" option was added to the control panel last year to support the Permissions plugin. As that plugin is now gone, the control panel has been updated to better suit its replacement, PermissionsEx.

That option has been changed to "Can Interact," which more accurately reflects how PermissionsEx handles that. Any group for which this permission is not set will not be able to interact with the physical world in any way. They can't build, destroy, use doors/chests/buttons/etc., attack, or be attacked. Mobs won't pay any attention to them at all, day or night - not even creepers. Basically, anyone in a group with Can Interact turned off is a spectator.

What we recommend, and what you should do if your default group suddenly can't build anymore:

• Turn on Can Interact for all groups
• Set up a plugin to do area protection (if you haven't already) such as WorldGuard, Towny, or PreciousStones

IMPORTANT: The "Can Interact" option is ignored if you have any modifyworld permissions specified in the Group Permissions box for that group. This is because some people will want to specify more fine-grained permissions.

Hello Minehost Users!

You may have noticed a new tab on your Minehost Control Panel today. It's the World Utilities tab! This suite of features has been a long time coming, and will give you more control over your world than ever, and it's all super simple and easy to use.

Here's a quick rundown of the things this new tab will now allow you to do, all on your own:

• Roll-backs - That's right- roll backs! Did somebody bomb your spawn-point? No more filing tickets. No more waiting. Just select the time you want to revert to, check off the confirm box, and go. Holy wow, time travel!
• Move Spawn - You can now change your world's spawn point, even without plugins! Just go where you want it to be, log out, and use this feature. Bam! Done!
• Delete Inventory - Is someone's inventory corrupted? Causing issues? Do you just want to get rid of all their items? Select a player, confirm, save/restart, and their pockets will be empty and they'll be back at spawn. Just like new!
• Map Analysis/Repair - Sometimes chunks get corrupted. Sometimes weird things happen. If your server is crashing or having issues, go here and run this tool first! 7 times out of 10, this is all you will need to do to fix your server from now on! It checks your map for errors, fixes them, and brings your server back online. All in under 20 minutes. How's that for self service?
• Remove All TNT - Did someone fill your house with bombs? Is your server repeatedly crashing because 10,000 TNTs are trying to explode at the same time? This feature will remove every block of TNT in your world. Use with care.
• Create a New Map - Tired of your world? Check the box, save and restart, and you'll be somewhere brand new in just a few minutes! If you liked your old world better, you can go back to it any time in the next 5 days! After that it's gone, though. Make sure you save a copy first!

The World Utilities tab is our most ambitious and useful feature in months, and we think it's going to dramatically enhance the way you use our service. Let us know what you think of it at support@minehost.org !

Please Note: The FAQ page will be out of date for several days until we finish updating it, since many functions that formerly required a support ticket be filed are now available from the World Utilities tab.

Earlier today, Minecraft 1.2.4 was released.

Update - 4:00 PM PDT: The update is now complete. If you attempt to log into your server and it times out or gives you any other error, you will probably need to restart it from the control panel. This is just something that 1.2.4 seems to do sometimes.

Here's the feature list:

+ Chat history and much better chat editing
+ A few new decoration blocks
+ “Back” and “Quit” buttons to OutOfMemoryScreen
+ Made cats more realistic (read: probably annoying). I hope it’s enough to cancel out any joy you may receive from the previous feature!
+ Added a “minimal” debug menu for testing with. Shift+F3 to hide the graphs.
* Made placing half blocks on existing half blocks (to make a full block) easier
* Limit framerate on menu screens, no longer uses 100% cpu and make my computer melt
* Fixed fatal crash for converted worlds to anvil, when there’s blocks at max height
* Fixed an old bug with signs clearing text while you’re editing them in SMP
* Fixed crash when logging in while there are blocks at maxheight at spawn
* Fixed TNT ghosts in multiplayer
* Fixed storage minecarts dropping enchanted items
* Fixed crashes on invalid server addresses when joining a server
* Fixed entities being uninteractable if they existed at login (Multiplayer)
* Fixed dupe exploit with paintings
* Fixed furnaces and dispensers dropping enchanted items
* Fixed the “flickering” of chat as it vanishes off the screen
* Fixed text rendering over items in the container screens
* Fixed exploit with jungle saplings (turns other saplings into jungle ones

Fortunately, there is a release of Bukkit for the new version already, so that's ready to go. At the moment, we are uploading the new versions of the Minecraft server and Bukkit. After that, we will do a forced restart of all servers, so everyone will get the new version immediately. We expect this to be done within half an hour of the time of posting.

UPDATE - 3/18/2012

We'll be upgrading all of our customers who are running the old stable version (1.1) to 1.2. Bukkit doesn't have a recommended build out yet, but it's been several weeks, and we believe this version is stable enough for prime time. It appears that most of our customers are using it anyway. As previously announced, we are upgrading our plugins as well. All you have to do is restart your server, or wait for it to restart, which it will do automatically every six hours.

If you have had your version control set to Stable, then you've been running 1.1 up to this point. When 1.2 starts for the first time, it will convert your map. If your map is very large, or has any errors in it, the conversion will fail, and you will not be able to play. If this is the case, please file a support ticket. We can check your map and reconvert it by hand.

Finally, since 1.2 introduces a new region format, we plan to delete all the old .mcr files left over by the old version. This will most likely happen within two weeks. It should not have any impact on anyone, but we thought we'd mention it.

Previous updates (3/1/2012)

Also important: The 1.2 client is supposed to tell you that your server is outdated if you try to connect to a 1.1 server. Unfortunately, it doesn't - it just says "Connection timed out" or "Took too long to log in." If you get that message, that's probably why!

Minecraft 1.2 dropped today, and includes a bunch of new features. There are some important things you should know about this release:

• 1.2 supports a new level format called Anvil. This increases the maximum level height from 128 to 256 blocks, which we think is really cool and a long time coming!
• Older versions of Minecraft do not support the Anvil format. It is supposedly possible to revert to the 1.1 format, and if that doesn't work, it would require a rollback to go back.
• Bukkit is now available for 1.2. It is NOT a stable production release, and may have bugs. If you choose to run Bukkit for 1.2, you should expect bugs.

Now, which version is your server running?

Minehost maintains two versions, which we call Stable and Unstable. As you might imagine, Stable is currently the older (1.1) release, and that has Bukkit available as well. The Unstable release is currently 1.2, and a development (probably buggy) build of Bukkit. The option that controls this is on the first tab of the control panel, near the bottom, and explains everything with a hover tip. If that option is set to Stable, then you will run 1.1. If it's set to Unstable, you'll run 1.2. (If you've never changed that setting, it's automatically on Stable.)

Because the level format changes in 1.2, the mapping utilities (Overviewer, which generates Google maps, and c10t, which generates static maps) will not work with maps that have been converted. We will update the mapping software once 1.2 becomes our Stable release. If you are running Dynmap or any other custom mapping plugin, that will need to be updated as well.

If you need any help with this, feel free to contact us. We're happy to help!

Weekly Snapshots

If you want to use one of the weekly snapshots of the upcoming Minecraft release (or a dev build of Bukkit), you can do so by uploading the appropriate .jar file over FTP (see our Support section for details.) We don't guarantee that they'll work, or that they won't be buggy, so do this at your own risk!

Also, because the new snapshots have a new format for saving region files, please be aware that your cartography (maps) will be out of date. You will also lose the ability to go back to using older versions, which are unable to read the new file format, without going through a number of annoying, convoluted steps, so DON'T do this unless you're really sure! The map generation software will be updated once the new region file format makes it into an official release. (c10t, which is used to generate the static maps, has not been actively developed. If it isn't updated, support for it will be dropped. On the other hand, Overviewer, which does the Google maps, is updated all the time & we do expect it to be updated.)

Development

We have been busy at work redoing some of the basic architecture behind Minehost. This is to support several goals:

• Some of the older code is being cleaned up to work better, and to be more extensible
• Part of the software that manages all the servers is getting an overhaul that will make it run more efficiently
• Our architecture is being updated to make it easy to move to a new Web platform in the future
• A small control panel update has been delayed to add more features, some of which depend on other work that's in progress
• Map generation control software has been updated to use better heuristics, which will help it to recover from more things that can go wrong with the map generation software, while at the same time protecting CPU resources
• Plugins and Bukkit are updated periodically, and the update process is automated better than it was before

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us. We like hearing from you!

Minehost maintains two versions of Minecraft (the vanilla server as well as Bukkit) which we call Stable and Unstable. When a new release comes out, it gets to be the Unstable version. After the vanilla server is believed to have no showstopper bugs, and after there is a recommended build (RB) of Bukkit, it gets to be the Stable version. Yesterday, an RB of Bukkit for 1.1 was released, and so we have promoted 1.1 and the new Bukkit to be our new stable release.

If you signed up within the last few weeks, your control panel setting for version control (bottom of the 1st tab) is probably set to Unstable, because that was necessary to get people set up on the new version. If that's you, you may want to consider changing it back to Stable. (Up to you!)

We've also updated and reinstated plugins that were mentioned previously for having compatibility issues. (Except Safe Creeper, which we are considering dropping support for due to its tendency to be incompatible with any version of Bukkit that isn't two months old, although you will always be free to upload it as a custom plugin over FTP if you want to deal with that.)

As always, any time Bukkit is updated, there is a chance that it may break plugins. If you have any issues, please let us know and we'll take a look.

We did a plugin update yesterday. Any time we do this, there's a risk that some incompatibility could cause problems. Here are a few things we ran into:

• PreciousStones now requires a plugin called Vault, which was causing problems. We've configured our software to automatically load that plugin if you have PreciousStones turned on, so it will work now.
• NoLagg was broken at the time it was updated. As a result, chunk loading didn't work properly - you would log in, and the only chunk you'd get sent was the one you were on. A fix was published a few hours after that, which we have downloaded, so that problem should no longer happen. If that's still happening to you, restart your server from the control panel.
• Spout has two versions, one for Minecraft 1.0.1 and a test build for Minecraft 1.1. If I put the test build in place, it may break things for people who are still on 1.0.1, so I can't update it yet. If you are running 1.1, and you still want to use Spout, follow these steps:
  • Download the test build.
  • Upload the test build to the custom-plugins directory over FTP. (Don't put it into the plugins directory.)
  • Press Save and Reload on the control panel.
  • Note: Once Spout is updated for 1.1, you'll see a notice in the control panel that we have the same (or a newer) version. At that point, you should delete the test build from the custom-plugins directory over FTP.
• Orebfuscator has the same issue as Spout. If you want to use the test build until we have a working one available (using the same instructions for Spout) you can get it here.

Minecraft 1.1 just dropped today. Here's the changelog:

• Bow Enchantments
• New language translations.
• Sheep eat grass and regain their wool
• Added spawn eggs to creative (the colors of the eggs even look like the mobs)
• Added world type options (currently only super-flat and default)
• Golden Apple recipe
• Slightly smoothed color transitions between biomes
• Reduced brewing time to 20 seconds
• Removed collision box from ladders
• Bug fixing

Fortunately, Bukkit has a dev build available, so we're making that available as well.

Minehost offers two versions of Minecraft and Bukkit, which we call "stable" and "unstable." The stable version is 1.0. The unstable version is 1.1. The option that controls this is on the first tab of the Control Panel, near the bottom. Once a few days have gone by without any serious problems, and the Bukkit team releases a recommended build for 1.1, they will become the stable release, and everyone (except those who are running custom servers) will be running them.

Some of you have reported issues with the Google map feature. I'd like to provide an update to let you know what's being done to fix it.

• Some maps have not been regularly updating. I added some diagnostics to the map generation routine in order to determine why this has been happening.
• When people use transparent texture packs (to find ore, etc.), there is a side-effect. Minecraft will randomly generate chunks way out in the middle of nowhere. These chunks may be a few or many kilometers away from anything else. This can artificially inflate the boundaries of a map to many times what it should be, and when Overviewer sees this, it sometimes crashes. I've added logic to force Overviewer to ignore anything more than about 10 kilometers from spawn, so it shouldn't crash for that reason anymore.
• Overviewer renders vines as purple squares. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about that. There is supposedly a fix, but the Overviewer team needs to merge that fix into the main source code repository. The terrain.png file (which Overviewer pulls textures from) is up to date on our end, and I've verified that it has the vine texture.

Speaking of maps, the ability to delete and roll back your maps from the control panel is currently being developed. This is mostly done - we just need to add a few things to the control panel, and do some testing to make sure that it works properly.

One of our machines in DC has crashed. I'm going to analyze the system disk and make sure there isn't an issue with the filesystem. The disk is rather large, so this will take awhile. After that there will be some other things I need to do to isolate the source of the problem. We apologize for the downtime, and thank you for your patience. Restoring service is the first priority - nothing else will be worked on until this machine is online.

Update - 6:52 PM PST 1/4: The system disk has been scanned (both the disk and the filesystem), and no errors have surfaced. The same diagnostic was performed on the SSDs (where the Minecraft servers run from) and no issues were found there either. I believe there may be a problem with the RAID controller or the system board, so I am going to look into getting those swapped out. This will probably take a few hours. I'm making a backup copy of all the Minecraft servers to the other machine in DC so that I can restore service more quickly. I will ask for hardware replacement when this is done.

Update - 8:53 PM PST 1/4: A SoftLayer technician is swapping out the RAID controller.

Update - 9:30 PM PST 1/4: The machine is up and running with all servers online. Looks stable so far.

Update - 2:55 PM PST 1/5: Looks like there's still a problem - load is many times higher than it should be, causing poor performance. The work I'd like to do to correct this would take several hours, and I don't want to incur that much downtime in the middle of the day unless I have to. I'm going to apply a temporary fix that should get everyone up and playing, and then do more in the middle of the night. It will result in about 30 minutes of downtime.

Update - 3:52 PM PST 1/5: The machine is back online and the servers have been running normally for the last ten minutes. It looks like we're in the clear for now, and based on some observations I was able to make, I know more about why this has been happening. More work will be conducted early AM.

Update - 1:29 AM PST 1/6: The machine will be taken offline shortly for maintenance. ETA is a few hours, as this will involve replacing the system disk, reinstalling the OS, and copying everyone's files back into place.

Update - 8:06 AM PST 1/6: Well, that took awhile. The machine has a new system disk. Testing to verify that the game servers work properly is underway.

Update - 8:33 AM PST 1/6: Testing is complete. Servers are coming back online now. If there are any issues, please feel free to file a ticket. We thank you for your patience. Google map data will need to be regenerated from scratch - it's a positively huge amount of data, and it wasn't reasonable to back it up due to time constraints. The map generation process will take care of this automatically, but it's throttled in order to ensure adequate resources for the actual game servers, so it will take a few days for all of the maps to get regenerated.

Update - 3:03 PM PST 1/10: Started seeing problems on the system disk again. I'm going to have SoftLayer replace everything that hasn't been yet. This will take a few hours.

Update - 5:22 PM PST 1/10: SoftLayer is still working on the transplant. We apologize for the inconvenience. Ideally we would have done the swap in the middle of the night, but the problem on the system disk would probably have got worse.

Update - 7:11 PM PST 1/10: SoftLayer has finished with the transplant. Since there were problems with the system disk, I'm going to reinstall the OS, just to make sure no files were corrupted. (The Minecraft servers themselves are stored on SSDs, and there were no errors on them, so everything should be fine. Naturally, I made backups just in case.)

Update - 8:11 PM PST 1/10: Ran into a snag. It won't affect the game servers, but it needs to be resolved before progress can continue. SoftLayer is working on it. Sorry this is taking so long! I really wish this had happened late at night, but the disk started getting weird right around noon, and the problem wasn't one that could be temporarily patched.

Update - 1:29 AM PST 1/11: The OS has been reinstalled. Server files are all in place and ready to go. I need to do some testing and watch it run for awhile before I can sign off on it and declare the outage concluded.

Update - 4:13 AM PST 1/11: I've been watching the machine for a good while now, and it looks like everything is going smoothly. I will continue to monitor the machine over the next few days.