SERVERKEY help

[razzored 37]

Hi there!
Im working on some mods, however they dont work on multiplayer with V1 or V2 signature checking.
I tired using the sign arma 3 tool to sign ALL the pbo's.. however it still wont accept the mods.
While every pbo in the addons folder gets a bikey, ive noticed that the key/serverkey folder is empty? how do i generate a server key for the entire mod? i have so far been unable to figure this out..

[Gunter Severloh 3948]

Hello, use only verifySignatures = 2; as v1 is depreciated.

45 minutes ago, razzored said:

While every pbo in the addons folder gets a bikey,

Pbo's will get a bisign. Bikey is for the server admin for the server itself.

52 minutes ago, razzored said:

how do i generate a server key for the entire mod?

Bikey gets created after you sign the mod with your private key, a private key is needed to sign pbos to begin with.

Once you sign your mod with your private key at the same time a bikey will be created.

 

In my tutorial below i show you how to sign your pbos using a private key you create and use as the authority to sign,

once you have it created, then you can sign the pbos in your mod. I use a little mod i created in the tutorial to demonstrate with

i also show you what folders the bisign shows up at, along with the private key and bikey.

 

The tutorial itself on utube has a timestamps in the description in case you need to go back or skip a step.

 

Btw what is your mod and what does it do, does it add content to a mission or something that adds a function, module, or some

gameplay type of action which changes something in the vanilla game?

And you are running your own server or joining a server and your mod isn't working on the server, or the server isn't allowing you to join the server with it loaded?

[razzored 37]

Thank you, just what i needed! i did not realise the bikey was in the dssign folder 🙂 this really helped.

[gc8 970]

 

Sorry for stupid question but when you distribute your mod do you share not only the .pbo but .bikey and .bisign as well?

 

 

[Gunter Severloh 3948]

33 minutes ago, razzored said:

Thank you, just what i needed! i did not realise the bikey was in the dssign folder 🙂 this really helped.

Welcome! Ya you probably had it all along but didn't know about that folder.

 

33 minutes ago, gc8 said:

when you distribute your mod do you share not only the .pbo but .bikey and .bisign as well?

Yes, pbo and bisign will both be in the addons folder of the mod, so when you sign your mod which could contain

one or many pbos, each pbo will get signed and a bisign will be added with the same name of the pbo, so they go together.

 

If the mod needs to be on the server then when you package your mod put a key or keys folder along side the addons folder

and put the bikey in there or have a containing folder of your mod where the mod @modname and keys folder are in the same place.

 

When a mod is put on a server then the admin will install the mod like any mod, and then take the bikey and add it to the server's Keys folder

it will act like a masterkey for your mod and allow a client (player) to join the server if they have a signed version of your mod which they got from your download.

      Each mod/DLC in Arma has to be signed by a key, which the server uses to verify if a client uses the correct mod version, or has altered/outdated content, this only

works provided the server admin/owner has enabled verfiySignature on their server.

 

Your private key that you sign and create a bikey with is not to be and or meant to be shared its for you

as its your key, or your authority that enables you to sign your mod.

 

More information on addon signatures can be found here on the wiki:

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_Addon_Signatures

[razzored 37]

@Gunter Severloh
All works, except, i have a total of 3 pbo files where it says 
Failed to sign Essentials.pbo
Failed to sign 1 file in 00:00:00.171.

And the same error with the 2 other files.. in a list of 30+ PBO files, 3 simply wont be signed? i have no clue why as there is nothing special about them..

[Gunter Severloh 3948]

What are in the files, are they of your creation?

Format of them could be wrong, cant really say why they wont sign, you could try signing them by themselves.

 

[razzored 37]

Yeah i already tried doing them solo, with no success.
Weird thing is, theres nothing special in them, they look and have the same setup as most other pbo addon files.
Their size is vastly bigger? but hell, ive seen 20gb mods that was signed, so i hardly doubt the size should impact if it can be signed or not?

[Gunter Severloh 3948]

Size shouldn't matter, about all i can tell you is that make sure that whats in the pbo is in the same format

as the rest of the pbos that are signed or that there is no errors, wrong usage of code, ect.

[doc. caliban 34]

I'm running into the same issue.  The mod works fine, so I assume there are no code errors.  I've signed it in the past but have edited several of the scripts since then and swapped one sound file out, so I need to sign it again.  This time it fails.  Now I can't publish the mod.  The lack of error logging is tragic.

 

I've done some testing.  If I re-sign the older pbo it signs fine.  If I change anything at all in the pbo, it will fail to sign it after that.  To say that I'm sick of troubleshooting finicky crap like this is an understatement. 

[Gunter Severloh 3948]

On 5/6/2020 at 9:56 PM, doc. caliban said:

If I re-sign the older pbo it signs fine.  If I change anything at all in the pbo, it will fail to sign it after that.

Just seeing your post here, sorry for the very late reply i wasn't following the thread, but a new change in the pbo may need a new private key

i cant say for sure, but thats the only thing that comes to mind that could be creating the issue.

   The private key working for only one set of pbos then not working for an altered set reminds me of when you get an addon dependency in the editor when you

have a mod or mods loaded that weren't originally there in the initial edit that prevents the mission from loading if you dont have the mod loaded, a private key could act

in the same manner im sure im wrong but thats how it comes across.

 

So as you know older pbos can be resigned with the original key but the same but updated pbo cannot, so create a new private key and treat the updated pbo's as a new sign.

Hope that works and helps, if it does work then it would prove my theory above 😄 Cheers!