You are correct, resolved it by deleting the factorio file and reinstalling everything.

Same problem on ubuntu 17.04

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 17.04
Release: 17.04
Codename: zesty




0.000 2017-04-24 20:33:35; Factorio 0.15.0 (build 29027, linux64, steam)
0.055 Operating system: Linux (Ubuntu 17.04)
0.055 Program ...