TLDR: integrate factorio nicely in your Ubuntu/Debian desktop as follows: download the attached zip. Download factorio_alpha_x64_[version].tar.xz. Put that [version] in the top of the file Makefile. Open a terminal, do "sudo make install", enjoy.
I use Ubuntu and I really like it when software nicely integrates in my desktop. Factorio does not do that by itself, but with a little help it can do that. Here is my approach, which is by the way based on the excellent AUR package.
The main idea is to create a .deb-package that can be installed in the usual way. Factorio is built such that it understands the standard linux file system, so that helps. Here is how you can do this:
- Download factorio.zip and unzip it
- Download factorio_alpha_x64_[version].tar.xz from factorio.com in the folder you just unzipped
- Open that folder in a terminal. In Ubuntu: right click on empty space in the folder and choose "Open in Terminal"
- Run "make", this will take a while. It will uncompress the factorio[blabla].xz and compress it again using some metadata to factorio_[version]-1.deb
- Run "sudo make install" or "sudo apt install ./factorio_[version]-1.deb" or "sudo dpkg -i ./factorio_[version]-1.deb" to install factorio.
- Open Factorio from the Ubuntu menu, just as you would do for any other app.
Bonus: You can convert your current factorio saves to the new factorio. To do this, copy paste the directories "config", "mods", "saves", and the files "achievements.dat", "blueprint-storage.dat", "crop-cache.dat", and "player-data.json" to "~/.factorio", where ~ stands for your home directory. Do *not* copy the file config-path.cfg. Be wise, make backups of your saves before doing this
If you have any questions, please let me know.
