WARN Your ARK server exec could not be found

[vampire337]

Freshly deployed container does not download any files, just spams the following into the container log:

###########################################################################
# Ark Server -  Tue Dec 23 17:13:46 EST 2025
###########################################################################
Detected sudo capable user... Continuing...
Ensuring correct permissions...
Cleaning up any leftover arkmanager files...
Creating arkmanager.cfg from environment variables...
Hardened filesystem detect, cannot setup Crontab...
Save file validation is not enabled.
Backup on start is not enabled.
Waiting for ARK server to be updated: Running command 'checkupdate' for instance 'main'
[  WARN  ]      Your ARK server exec could not be found.
Querying Steam database for latest version...
steamcmd.sh[56]: Restarting steamcmd by request...
Current version:
Available version:  21241282
Your server needs to be restarted in order to receive the latest update.
Run "arkmanager update" to do so
.Running command 'checkupdate' for instance 'main'
[  WARN  ]      Your ARK server exec could not be found.
Querying Steam database for latest version...

I've deployed my container with & without volumes to confirm it's not a folder permissions or empty volume issue. Confirmed my mapped volumes have full permissions for UID/GID 1001. Google brought me to a Reddit discussion from 5 months ago indicating Linux binaries have been removed: https://www.reddit.com/r/ARK/comments/1m0ubuq/shootergamebinarieslinux_removed_from_all_of_my/

I see a comment with a command to install the server in a new preaquatic branch, but it requires running steamcmd.sh, which I haven't been able to find in the container. Is there a workaround?

[DrPsychick]

I guess I missed putting that into the readme. If you wanna contribute how to get it working, feel free to open a PR!

#40

[vampire337]

I read through your link, and I tried adding "-e AM_INSTALL_ARGS=--beta-preaquatica", and this did not seem to resolve the issue.

I'd be happy to do a PR if I had any clue how to get it working, so but far I'm just hitting a wall.

[DrPsychick]

Can you get the tests to run? You don't have to build the image for it, you can use the public one. Because last time I checked, they worked. It has to download Ark initially, if it does not, somethings broken.

arkserver/test/run-test.sh

Line 25 in 35b276d

docker run --rm -it --name $serverdir \

[vampire337]

Instructions not entirely clear there, but I ran the following:

docker run --rm -it --name arkserver \
    -e ARKCLUSTER=false \
    -e ARKSERVER_SHARED= \
    -e LIST_MOUNTS=true \
    -e AM_INSTALL_ARGS=--beta=preaquatica \
    drpsychick/arkserver

And it returns this:

###########################################################################
# Ark Server -  Tue Dec 23 23:26:13 UTC 2025
###########################################################################
Detected sudo capable user... Continuing...
Ensuring correct permissions...
Cleaning up any leftover arkmanager files...
No game files found. Preparing for install...
Creating arkmanager.cfg from environment variables...
Hardened filesystem detect, cannot setup Crontab...
Save file validation is not enabled.
Backup on start is not enabled.
LIST Mounts:
ARKSERVER_SHARED= ARKCLUSTER=false
--> /ark
total 7
drwxr-xr-x 7 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root  root  1024 Dec 23 23:26 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 backup
drwxr-xr-x 2 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 config
drwxr-xr-x 2 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 log
drwxr-xr-x 3 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 server
drwxr-xr-x 2 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 staging
--> /ark/server/ShooterGame/Saved/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 4 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 Config
drwxr-xr-x 2 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 SavedArks
--> /ark/server/ShooterGame/Saved/SavedArks
total 2
drwxr-xr-x 2 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 steam steam 1024 Dec 23 23:26 ..
/dev/vda3 on /ark type ext4 (rw,relatime)
/dev/vda3 on /arkserver type ext4 (rw,relatime)
ark:~#

Does not appear to be downloading any Ark server files.

[DrPsychick]

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear on running the tests, I quickly ran it myself, like this:

cd ./tests
# first: edit `run_test.sh`, go to the bottom, call the test function you want to test, to download ARK: `testSharedMount`
./run_test.sh # it shows logs from the second server!

# check logs of the first server:
docker logs -f ark-theisland

It hangs at:

Running command 'install' for instance 'main'
steamcmd.sh[48]: Restarting steamcmd by request...

Not sure what the problem is, but it's not downloading ARK.

[DrPsychick]

You could try and checkout this commit of the repo (ee2b943) and then build the container/run the test as above.

This excludes the latest update to arkmanager to v1.6.68 (#41)

Other than that: run a steamcmd container and try downloading Ark manually. If that does not work, somethings off with steamcmd. (e.g. https://github.com/SickHub/steamcmd)