That semms to have been the problem, that I was either using an old or corrupted spells-build.
someone@someplace ~/tmwAthena/tmwa-server-data/world/map/conf $ ./build-magic.sh
spells-build has been updated; please provide invocations for spells and/or teleport anchors.
someone@someplace ~/tmwAthena/tmwa-server-data/world/map/conf $ chmod +x spells-build
someone@someplace ~/tmwAthena/tmwa-server-data/world/map/conf $ ./build-magic.sh
someone@someplace ~/tmwAthena/tmwa-server-data/world/map/conf $
For anyone who may currently be interested in getting magic to work on a local server, this may work for you.
First open this folder in a terminal
/home/someone/tmwAthena/tmwa-server-data/world/map/conf
then
./build-magic.sh
if it says you do not have permission, then do this
chmod +x build-magic.sh
and repeat
./build-magic.sh
then replace spells-build text file with correct spells-build text file
and do
chmod +x spells-build
then again do
./build-magic.sh
You can find the spells-build text file to use in the attachment.
The only reason it is in a zip file is that that is the only way I could add it to attachment.
Just unzip it and copy and paste it in the right folder at the right step mentioned above.
Note: This might save you some time in figuring why even after you see [magic-conf] Magic initialised; obscure at 95%. 142 spells, 9 teleport anchors. in your server terminal, but still can not cast magic, even though you previously got all magic abilities at max level from a debug NPC
For some reason after you initialize magic on your server, it seems to erase your characters magic abilities, so you have to go talk to a debug NPC again and set your magic ability again even if you did it already.
Edit: LMDE stands for Linux Mint Debian Edition