Running a Minecraft Server on Raspberry Pi 5

The Pi 5's improved CPU makes it viable for a small Minecraft server for friends.

Pi Comparison

Java Installation

sudo apt update && sudo apt install default-jdk -y
java -version

Download Server

Get the latest server.jar from minecraft.net/en-us/download/server:

mkdir ~/minecraft && cd ~/minecraft
wget https://[latest-server-url]/server.jar

First Run

java -Xmx1536M -Xms512M -jar server.jar nogui

Accept EULA: echo "eula=true" > eula.txt then run again.

Optimized Launch for Pi 5

java -Xmx2G -Xms1G -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled \
  -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200 -jar server.jar nogui

server.properties for Pi

max-players=8
view-distance=6
simulation-distance=5

Better Performance: PaperMC

PaperMC uses significantly less RAM than vanilla Java. Download from papermc.io — drop-in replacement for server.jar.