Factorio Forums

Hey all, don't despair, there is a way to run Factorio on older Debian/Ubuntu systems without Proton+Win.

The solution is to run Factorio via Steam Linunx Runtime 4.0, which has correct version of glibc. There is a high chance you got it installed already, if that's the case, all you need to do is to edit your `~/.steam/steam/config/config.vdf`, find 427520 (it is Factorio's Steam ID) under `CompatToolMapping` section and edit `steamlinuxruntime` to `steamlinuxruntime_4`. Then be sure to restart Steam, and Factorio will magically work.

Merssedes wrote: Thu Jun 25, 2026 6:10 am Can Ubuntu 22.04 (which ships 2.35) be redirected to Debian bookworm it based on (has 2.36 in repository)?

Not in any practical/worthwhile way as far as I know. Ubuntu isn't really based on a specific fully finished Debian version. It's more like they 'fork' from one while that version is mid-way through development. They end up pretty different by the time they're both released. glibc is really, really core to a lot of things and not at all simple to just upgrade.

You can build other versions of glibc and get programs to use them, which I mentioned a little about above, but it seems really really hacky and I wouldn't trust it.

Merssedes wrote: Thu Jun 25, 2026 6:10 am As backward solution: can Ubuntu be used in build container?

I suggested that (as a joke) and Sanqui said just before your replies that he'd look into it. I wouldn't get your hopes up. I'm not sure it's reasonable for them to rework part of their build process for the few of us stuck in a wonky situation where we can't upgrade for a bit

Daniel0x00 wrote: Thu Jun 25, 2026 6:19 am Hey all, don't despair, there is a way to run Factorio on older Debian/Ubuntu systems without Proton+Win.

The solution is to run Factorio via Steam Linunx Runtime 4.0, which has correct version of glibc. There is a high chance you got it installed already, if that's the case, all you need to do is to edit your `~/.steam/steam/config/config.vdf`, find 427520 (it is Factorio's Steam ID) under `CompatToolMapping` section and edit `steamlinuxruntime` to `steamlinuxruntime_4`. Then be sure to restart Steam, and Factorio will magically work.

Which requires installed Steam. Unfortunately, not my case

Daniel0x00 wrote: Thu Jun 25, 2026 6:19 am Hey all, don't despair, there is a way to run Factorio on older Debian/Ubuntu systems without Proton+Win.

The solution is to run Factorio via Steam Linunx Runtime 4.0, which has correct version of glibc. There is a high chance you got it installed already, if that's the case, all you need to do is to edit your `~/.steam/steam/config/config.vdf`, find 427520 (it is Factorio's Steam ID) under `CompatToolMapping` section and edit `steamlinuxruntime` to `steamlinuxruntime_4`. Then be sure to restart Steam, and Factorio will magically work.

Ahhh that's a really nice idea. I completely forgot the Steam Linux Runtime was a thing. Seems to launch the game at least. Can't test properly until later. Thanks!

Merssedes wrote: Thu Jun 25, 2026 6:33 am Which requires installed Steam. Unfortunately, not my case

There are other ways to do the same thing. Lutris seems to have scripts for Factorio that let you provide the file from the website. Maybe you can either containerise it similarly, or run the Windows build with Proton (not using Steam).

We have enabled Linux Runtime 4.0 on Steam for versions 2.1.x, hopefully that will work for most players. Still looking into lowering the glibc requirement for the standalone version!

Sanqui wrote: Thu Jun 25, 2026 4:04 pm Still looking into lowering the glibc requirement for the standalone version!

Is it fair to assume that this was not successful?

Also I want to point out that we have at least 7 people having this problem on the experimental branch: berggen, Prommah, Omnifarious, TRekt, GregoriusT, lmh and me. Once this hits stable, there are guaranteed to be more.

Well, I'm also experiencing this. At least I can appreciate the irony that my choice to use Ubuntu 22.04 was entirely down to an ostrich-like desire to avoid precisely this sort of thing for as long as possible. I just wish it didn't take something as heavyweight as Valve's Linux runtime/container system to solve the app distribution problem.

I was able to rebase the release build environment atop Ubuntu 22.04, so the next release should require glibc 2.35 instead of 2.36.

Sanqui wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2026 12:48 pm I was able to rebase the release build environment atop Ubuntu 22.04, so the next release should require glibc 2.35 instead of 2.36.

Thank you very much