wg_gaming_installer — WireGuard installer & manager

Lightweight installer/manager for a personal WireGuard server with optional port forwarding for gaming and similar use-cases. This repository contains the original bash installer (in the legacy_script branch) and a rewritten Python package wg_gaming_installer (recommended).

Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• Why the Python version
• Supported platforms
• Prerequisites
• Main menu
• Port forwarding
• Customization
• Troubleshooting
• Legacy installer
• License

Quick Start

Clone, create a venv, install, and run the installer (as root, sudo -i before running the following):

git clone https://github.com/xiahualiu/wg_gaming_installer.git
cd wg_gaming_installer
python3 -m venv .venv --system-site-packages
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
python -m wg_gaming_installer.install_scripts

Why the Python version

• Safer, clearer prompts and input validation.
• SQLite-backed config for persistent server & peer metadata.
• More portable across distributions using Python libraries.

Supported platforms

Officially supported minimums:

Distribution	Minimum	Notes
ubuntu	20.10	22.04 recommended
debian	11	Bullseye

Also commonly compatible: centos/rocky/almalinux (9), fedora (32), arch (rolling).

• Requires a Linux host with a public IP or correct NAT/public endpoint.
• On OpenVZ/LXC you may need TUN/TAP enabled and wireguard-go will be installed.

Prerequisites

• Root privileges.
• Python 3.10+ and python3-venv.
• A non-production host is recommended; the installer modifies networking and firewall rules.

Main menu

After installation, the interactive menu provides these actions:

• Stop/Start WireGuard service
• Uninstall and remove generated files
• List peers; show peer config + QR code
• Add / Remove / Edit peers

Port forwarding

The installer can add nftables DNAT rules that forward chosen public ports to a peer's WireGuard IP (IPv4/IPv6 supported). This is useful to host game servers or fix client NAT.

Example: forward TCP 25565 to 10.66.66.2:25565 so SERVER_PUBLIC_IP:25565 reaches the peer.

Important: do not forward ports already used by server-local services (SSH, etc.).

Customization

Recommended safe workflow:

1. Stop the service from the management menu.
2. Edit wg_gaming_installer/exec_scripts.py to change what the installer generates.
3. Restart the service using the management menu.

Troubleshooting

• If the installer detects a non-public IP (e.g. 10.x.x.x), supply your public IP when prompted (common on cloud providers).

Legacy installer

The original bash installer is in the legacy_script branch:

git switch legacy_script
./install.sh

Note: the legacy installer is not compatible with the Python version; choose one approach.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see LICENSE for details.