Installing Metamod:Source

This article will guide you through a Metamod:Source installation. Use this guide if you wish to install Metamod:Source manually, or for some reason you cannot (or will not) use the automated installer.
The below is a detailed install guide and provides excellent issue and install feedback. However, if you're having troubles understanding the page and its instructions, a simplified install guide is available here.

Normal Installation

1. Download Metamod:Source (1.7 or higher recommended).
2. Extract the package to your game folder. For example, for Counter-Strike:Source, you would have cstrike/addons/metamod after extracting. If you are uploading to FTP, extract the files locally before transferring to your server's game folder.
3. Click here to generate a metamod.vdf file for your server. Once finished, place this file in your addons folder.
4. Restart your server.
5. Type "meta version" in your server console (or RCON). You should see a line like: "Loaded As: Valve Server Plugin." If the command is not recognized, see the Troubleshooting section below.

GameInfo

Note: This is normally not needed - if you do not understand what this, do NOT do this unless instructed to. The above instructions are sufficient to install Metamod:Source for 99% of servers.

Metamod:Source 1.4.2 and lower used an older method for loading itself. The advantage of this method was that Metamod:Source could be loaded before the actual game mod, which gave it a small amount of extra functionality. This functionality was never used by plugin developers, and Steam updates kept overwriting gameinfo.txt files, so we switched to a different loading mechanism.

However this loading mechanism may still be desirable if you run into backwards compatibility issues, or you have a plugin which takes advantage of the early-loading mechanism. If this is your case, here are the gameinfo.txt directions below:

• Open the file in the mod folder called "gameinfo.txt". You will see a few lines at the bottom like this:

  SearchPaths
  {
  	Game				|gameinfo_path|. 
  	Game				cstrike
  	Game				hl2
  }
  

• Add a line after the "{" sign but before all of the "Game" entries that looks like this:

  GameBin				|gameinfo_path|addons/metamod/bin
  

• If you're using Windows, you may need to use a backwards slash (\) instead.
• You're done! To test whether it worked, restart your game server and type "meta version" in the server console. You should see a line that says "Loaded as: GameDLL (gameinfo.txt)." If it doesn't recognize the command, the installation probably failed. If the "Loaded as:" line says something else, gameinfo.txt was probably not modified correctly.
• For more information or documentation, see Category:Metamod:Source Documentation

The gameinfo.txt loading method is supported as a legacy feature only. The patcher tool is no longer provided. You can mark gameinfo.txt if you absolutely want to protect it from being overwritten.

We will continue to make sure Metamod:Source can load via this method for as long as the Source Engine allows it. However, we will concentrate more on supporting the new loading mechanism for general use.