How to Set Up a FiveM RP Server with QBCore on Ubuntu 24.04

Update the package index and install base dependencies:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y curl wget xz-utils git screen tmux ufw build-essential

screen and tmux keep the server process running after you disconnect from the SSH session — FiveM has no native daemon.

Create a dedicated user for the server. Running FiveM as root is bad practice and txAdmin explicitly warns against it:

sudo adduser --disabled-password --gecos "" fivem
sudo usermod -aG sudo fivem
sudo su - fivem

From this point forward, all commands run as the fivem user unless prefixed with sudo.

Configure the firewall to allow SSH, FiveM, and txAdmin:

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw allow 30120/tcp
sudo ufw allow 30120/udp
sudo ufw allow 40120/tcp
sudo ufw --force enable

UDP port 30120 is the critical one — it carries the actual game traffic. TCP 30120 is used for the initial handshake and the server browser list.

Install MariaDB and run the security assistant:

sudo apt install -y mariadb-server mariadb-client
sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb
sudo mariadb-secure-installation

Answer Y to all prompts except the first one (switch to unix_socket) — leave that as N to maintain password-based authentication compatibility, which is what oxmysql expects.

Create the QBCore database and user:

sudo mariadb -u root -p

Inside the SQL prompt:

CREATE DATABASE qbcore CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'qbuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'changeThisStrongPassword123!';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON qbcore.* TO 'qbuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Use a real password (generate one with openssl rand -base64 24) — this string will appear in server.cfg in plain text.

Create the directory structure and download the current recommended build:

mkdir -p ~/server ~/server-data
cd ~/server
wget https://runtime.fivem.net/artifacts/fivem/build_proot_linux/master/15295-de1d8a35434f0f2b5b8bcae93e9eb8f6e4a7df14/fx.tar.xz
tar xf fx.tar.xz
rm fx.tar.xz

The URL changes with every build. Get the current one at runtime.fivem.net/artifacts/fivem/build_proot_linux/master/ and copy the link from the latest folder marked LATEST RECOMMENDED.

Clone the initial server-data template (default cfx resources):

cd ~/server-data
git clone https://github.com/citizenfx/cfx-server-data.git .

This repository only provides the minimal structure — we will replace the resources with QBCore in the next section.

Create the folder structure and clone the core packages:

cd ~/server-data/resources
mkdir -p [qb]
cd [qb]
git clone https://github.com/qbcore-framework/qb-core.git
git clone https://github.com/qbcore-framework/qb-multicharacter.git
git clone https://github.com/qbcore-framework/qb-spawn.git
git clone https://github.com/qbcore-framework/qb-inventory.git
git clone https://github.com/qbcore-framework/qb-target.git
git clone https://github.com/qbcore-framework/qb-menu.git
git clone https://github.com/qbcore-framework/qb-input.git

The brackets in [qb] are not a typo — it is a FiveM convention for grouping resources. The server loads all resources inside bracketed folders recursively.

Install oxmysql, which replaces the older mysql-async:

cd ~/server-data/resources
mkdir -p [standalone]
cd [standalone]
git clone https://github.com/overextended/oxmysql.git

QBCore declares oxmysql as a dependency in fxmanifest.lua — without it, no resource will start.

Import the QBCore SQL schema into the database. The schema file ships inside qb-core:

mariadb -u qbuser -p qbcore < ~/server-data/resources/[qb]/qb-core/qb-core.sql

Enter the password you set in Step 05. This import creates the players, bans, permissions, player_vehicles, and roughly 25 other tables in total.

Edit the main configuration file:

nano ~/server-data/server.cfg

Replace the contents with this template:

# Endpoints
endpoint_add_tcp "0.0.0.0:30120"
endpoint_add_udp "0.0.0.0:30120"

# Database connection (oxmysql)
set mysql_connection_string "mysql://qbuser:changeThisStrongPassword123!@localhost/qbcore?charset=utf8mb4"

# Base resources
ensure oxmysql
ensure qb-core
ensure qb-multicharacter
ensure qb-spawn
ensure qb-inventory
ensure qb-target
ensure qb-menu
ensure qb-input

# Server settings
sv_hostname "My RP Server | QBCore"
sv_maxclients 48
sv_licenseKey "PASTE_YOUR_KEYMASTER_KEY_HERE"
sv_endpointprivacy true

# Initial admin (replace with your identifier after first connection)
add_ace group.admin command allow
add_principal identifier.license:YOUR_LICENSE_IDENTIFIER group.admin

The license key is free from keymaster.fivem.net — you need to register your VPS IP there to generate it.

Start the server inside a screen session so it keeps running after you disconnect:

screen -S fivem
cd ~/server-data
bash ~/server/run.sh +set serverProfile default

On first run, txAdmin prints a URL to the console in the format http://YOUR_IP:40120/addMaster/pin?pin=XXXX. Open it in a browser, set an admin password, and point the server-data path to /home/fivem/server-data.

To detach from screen without killing the process: Ctrl+A followed by D.

From the txAdmin web panel, click “Start Server”. Watch the Console tab — you should see lines like:

[script:oxmysql] Database server connection established!
[script:qb-core] QBCore Started Successfully
Resource oxmysql started
Resource qb-core started

If you see a database connection error, review the mysql_connection_string in server.cfg. If you get an invalid license key error, regenerate the key on keymaster with the correct IP.