I got so fed up trying to fix up these issues I destroyed my server. For like the third time. No more trying...
I will now wait until someone provides an updated step by step guide for setting up the mn on a vps with sentinel. Since the issues are solved, I don't think I have to wait long.
Desire + Sentinel standalone (windows + linux)
You only need this if you are running a masternode and getting WATCHDOG_EXPIRED
...
Please note that if you run sentinel from command prompt you need to write without '=' and add '--rpc-port':
sentinel-win64.exe --config C:\path\to\desire.conf --rpc-port 9918