Here is how you can run Minecraft server on your Android device. This will allow anyone playing Minecraft on the desktop to connect to the server running on your device. To do this, you will first need to install Linux to your Android device then install java and run the Minecraft server jar file. It is actually a fairly easy process and takes no more than 15 minutes altogether.
Of course, you will need to have a rooted Android phone in order to do this. I would also like to mention that there is a Minecraft server app called MCServer that does not require any root permissions. The only problem is that this app has not been updated for over 3 years. So it does not work with any of the latest Minecraft clients.
What You Will Need:
- Rooted Android Device
- Linux Deploy
- SE Linux Mode Changer (only Android 5.0+)
- Oracle Jdk 7 for ARM
- Minecraft Server Jar
Step 1: Linux Linux Linux!
Okay, so the first thing you need to do is install Linux on your phone. I am not going to go in depth because I made a video tutorial that covers all the details. Just make sure that you set the user as root and enable the SSH and VNC services at boot. I am going to be working with Linux through an SSH client on my desktop, however, you can do it through VNC and SSH or terminal on your Android device. For this tutorial, I am going to install debian wheezy.
Also, if you are running Andorid 5.0 or higher, you will need to download the SE Linux Changer app and change your mode to permissive!
Step 2: Update and Install
After you have Linux setup type in:
sudo apt-get update
If you are running debian, download the epiphany browser.
sudo apt-get install epiphany-browser
Step 3: Java
Now it is time to download Java. We are going to use oracle’s java because it seems to work better for the Minecraft server than openJDK. Download java from the link above and unzip the archieve. To keep things simple, we are not going to set up any global PATH variable. We will just simply put the Minecraft jar file in the bin folder.
Step 4: Minecraft
Now download the Minecraft server jar file and transfer it to the bin of your java folder. To start it type in:
./java -Xmx256M -Xms256M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui
You can change the 256M to a higher value if you wish, just be aware that it might cause the server to crash. When you first run it, it will prompt you to sign the eula.txt located in the same folder as the server. Simply go in using nano or any text editor and change false to true. Then type the above command again. You might see a few Java errors, but afterwards it will begin to load the spawn area.
Step 5: Connect
Using Minecraft on your desktop, you can connect by going to multiplayer and adding a new server. Use your phone’s iP address on your wireless network followed by the port. (Usually 25565).
And hopefully you should be up and running on Minecraft. As far as performance, it is decent and playable. I was only able to test it with one client so I don’t know how well it would handle under a large load.
Feel free to leave any questions or comments.