Factorio Forums

Posted: **Mon Aug 25, 2025 6:55 pm**

tl;dr: Since Factorio 2.0.0 the game randomly crashes on restart (~25% of the time on 2.0.60, ~10% on earlier 2.0.x), even with all mods disabled.

Factorio version: 2.0.x (currently 2.0.60, Steam, space-age)

---
Description
Since the initial 2.0 release and up to today, the game intermittently crashes on startup or after a restart - even without any mod configuration changes.
Reinstalling Factorio helps only temporarily; the issue reappears later.

Note: Changing a mod configuration (e.g., toggling a mod on/off) and then restarting is just the easiest way to reproduce the crash on my side, but the crash also occurs after a regular restart with no mod changes.
---
Steps to reproduce
A. Minimal
1. Start or restart Factorio.
2. Observe that sometimes the game starts normally; other times it crashes on startup or during/after loading.

B. Example that often triggers (for convenience of repro)
1. enable/disable Quality mod.
2. Restart Factorio.
3. The crash occurs intermittently (not every time).
---

Logs and files

~/.factorio/factorio-current.log (from 2.0.60) -> attached
- Relevant excerpts observed repeatedly on my system (even when no crash happens in that session):
  Code: Select all
```
Parallel sprite loading failed, falling back to normal sprite loading.
IDAT: incorrect data check: __base__/graphics/entity/legacy-curved-rail/legacy-curved-rail-vertical-right-top-stone-path-background-remnants.png; mods: ?
Prototypes using the sprite: data.raw["rail-remnants"]["legacy-curved-rail-remnants"]
```
  In this particular log the session continues to initialization and ends with "Quitting: user-quit.", but these PNG decode errors appear consistently across sessions where crashes also occur.
Crash report(s) from ~/.factorio/factorio-current.log -> attached
~/.factorio/mods/mod-list.json -> attached
A save that has seen the crash on restart -> attached

Version history / scope

First affected: 2.0.0 (initial 2.x release)
Still affected: 2.0.60 (2025-08-25)

System environment

OS: KDE neon User Edition 24.04 (based on Ubuntu Noble 24.04)
Kernel: 6.14.0-28-generic
Desktop: KDE Plasma (X11 session)
CPU: Intel Core i7-10750H (12 cores)
RAM: 32 GB
GPU (primary for Factorio): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile
- Driver: NVIDIA 570.169
- OpenGL version: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 25.0.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.1
GPU (integrated): Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2), driver i915
Audio: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 1.2.6)

Code: Select all

   0.000 2025-08-25 21:00:17; Factorio 2.0.60 (build 83512, linux64, steam, space-age)
   0.000 Operating system: Linux
   0.000 Initializing Steam API.
   0.000 Program arguments: "/home/anton/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/bin/x64/factorio" 
   0.000 Config path: /home/anton/.factorio/config/config.ini
   0.000 Read data path: /home/anton/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/data
   0.000 Write data path: /home/anton/.factorio [426089/479326MB]
   0.000 Binaries path: /home/anton/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/bin
   0.006 System info: [CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz, 12 cores, RAM: 31910 MB]
   0.006 Environment: DISPLAY=:1 WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0 DESKTOP_SESSION=plasma XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=KDE XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=KDE SDL_VIDEODRIVER=<unset> __GL_FSAA_MODE=<unset> __GL_LOG_MAX_ANISO=<unset> __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=<unset> __GL_SORT_FBCONFIGS=<unset> __GL_YIELD=<unset>
   0.031 Display options: [FullScreen: true] [VSync: false] [UIScale: automatic (100.0%)] [Native DPI: true] [Screen: 255] [Special: lmw] [Lang: en]
   0.040 Video driver: x11
   0.040 Available displays: 1
   0.040  [0]: HDMI-A-1 27" - {[0,0], 2560x1440, SDL_PIXELFORMAT_RGB888, 60Hz}
   0.240 Initialised OpenGL:[0] NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti/PCIe/SSE2; driver: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 570.169
   0.240   [Extensions] s3tc:yes; KHR_debug:yes; ARB_clear_texture:yes, ARB_copy_image:yes, ARB_pipeline_statistics_query:yes, ARB_gl_spirv:yes, ARB_ES2_compatibility:yes
   0.240   [Version] 3.3
   0.268 Graphics settings preset: very-high
   0.268   Dedicated video memory size 6390 MB (detected from NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti; VendorID: 0x10de; DeviceID: 0x2191)
   0.273 Graphics options: [Graphics quality: high] [Video memory usage: all] [DXT: high-quality]
   0.273                   [Max threads (load/render): 32/12] [Max texture size: 8192] [Tex.Stream.: false] [Rotation quality: low] [Other: STDCWtl] [B:0,C:0,S:100]
   0.297 [Audio] Driver:pulseaudio, Device:Default device, Depth:16, Frequency:44100, Channels:2, Interpolation:linear
   0.425 Info ModManager.cpp:444: FeatureFlag expansion-shaders = false
   0.425 Info ModManager.cpp:444: FeatureFlag freezing = false
   0.425 Info ModManager.cpp:444: FeatureFlag quality = false
   0.425 Info ModManager.cpp:444: FeatureFlag rail-bridges = false
   0.425 Info ModManager.cpp:444: FeatureFlag segmented-units = false
   0.425 Info ModManager.cpp:444: FeatureFlag space-travel = false
   0.425 Info ModManager.cpp:444: FeatureFlag spoiling = false
   0.437 Loading mod core 0.0.0 (data.lua)
   0.450 Loading mod base 2.0.60 (data.lua)
   0.564 Loading mod base 2.0.60 (data-updates.lua)
   0.605 Checksum for core: 4171658704
   0.605 Checksum of base: 1534080171
   0.744 Prototype list checksum: 159860831
   0.771 Loading sounds...
   0.857 Info PlayerData.cpp:66: Local player-data.json unavailable
   0.857 Info PlayerData.cpp:69: Cloud player-data.json available, timestamp 1756144815
   0.858 Post-data load graphics options: [Light occlusion: no]
   1.071 Initial atlas bitmap size is 8192
   1.076 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8176) [none]
   1.080 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8192) [none]
   1.088 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8188) [none]
   1.090 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8184) [none]
   1.092 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8192) [linear-magnification]
   1.093 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8192) [none]
   1.093 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x3104) [none]
   1.095 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8192) [low-object]
   1.095 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x6784) [low-object]
   1.096 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8136) [corpse-decay]
   1.096 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8188) [corpse-decay]
   1.096 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8076) [corpse-decay]
   1.096 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x4352) [decal]
   1.096 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x5632) [mipmap, linear-minification, linear-magnification, linear-mip-level]
   1.096 Created an atlas bitmap (size 4096x1632) [smoke, mipmap, linear-minification, linear-magnification]
   1.098 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8096) [terrain, mipmap, linear-minification, linear-mip-level]
   1.098 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x4880) [terrain, mipmap, linear-minification, linear-mip-level]
   1.098 Created an atlas bitmap (size 4096x2960) [terrain-effect-map, mipmap, linear-minification, linear-mip-level]
   1.098 Created an atlas bitmap (size 4096x3104) [mipmap]
   1.098 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x2560) [icon, not-compressed, mipmap, linear-minification, linear-magnification, linear-mip-level]
   1.098 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x5168) [alpha-mask]
   1.104 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8184) [shadow, linear-magnification, alpha-mask]
   1.108 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8192) [shadow, linear-magnification, alpha-mask]
   1.109 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x8188) [shadow, linear-magnification, alpha-mask]
   1.109 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x4352) [shadow, linear-magnification, alpha-mask]
   1.109 Created an atlas bitmap (size 8192x2352) [shadow, mipmap, linear-magnification, alpha-mask]
   1.109 Created an atlas bitmap (size 4096x176) [icon-background, not-compressed, mipmap, linear-minification, linear-magnification, linear-mip-level, ]
   1.109 Loading 3D bitmaps.
   1.117 Texture processor created (4096). GPU accelerated compression Supported: yes, Enabled: yes/yes. Test passed. YCoCgDXT PSNR: 35.83, BC3 PSNR: 33.82
   1.231 Parallel sprite loader initialized (threads: 11, bitmaps: 4655)
   8.052 Error ParallelSpriteLoader.cpp:67: Parallel sprite loading failed, falling back to normal sprite loading. IDAT: incorrect data check: __base__/graphics/entity/legacy-curved-rail/legacy-curved-rail-vertical-right-top-stone-path-background-remnants.png
         RAM: 31910 MB
   8.298 Error AtlasBuilder.cpp:1266: IDAT: incorrect data check: __base__/graphics/entity/legacy-curved-rail/legacy-curved-rail-vertical-right-top-stone-path-background-remnants.png; mods: ?
         Prototypes using the sprite:
           data.raw["rail-remnants"]["legacy-curved-rail-remnants"]
   8.359 Texture processor created (4096). GPU accelerated compression Supported: yes, Enabled: yes/yes. Test passed. YCoCgDXT PSNR: 35.83, BC3 PSNR: 33.82
   8.561 Sprites loaded
   8.584 Generated mipmaps (4) for atlas [7] of size 8192x8192   
   8.592 Generated mipmaps (4) for atlas [8] of size 8192x6784   
   8.595 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [13] of size 8192x5632   
   8.600 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [14] of size 4096x1632   
   8.629 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [15] of size 8192x8096   
   8.646 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [16] of size 8192x4880   
   8.652 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [17] of size 4096x2960   
   8.695 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [18] of size 4096x3104   
   8.715 Generated mipmaps (5) for atlas [19] of size 8192x2560   
   8.718 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [25] of size 8192x2352   
   8.718 Custom mipmaps uploaded (0)
   8.746 Video memory usage: 1521.01 MB (Atlases: 1507.23 MB, Textures: 13.78 MB)
   8.760 Factorio initialised
  10.429 Quitting: user-quit.
  10.604 Steam API shutdown.
  10.608 Goodbye

Posted: **Tue Aug 26, 2025 12:12 pm**

After a full system reboot (without reinstalling Factorio) the game started launching again.
It makes me think that some file permissions or access rights might be getting reset.

Also, I want to note that this bug has reproduced for me not only on KDE neon 24.04, but also earlier on Fedora 42 KDE edition and on Kubuntu.

Posted: **Tue Aug 26, 2025 12:48 pm**

Is this all on the same HDD / SSD? Is it always the same file - __base__/graphics/entity/legacy-curved-rail/legacy-curved-rail-vertical-right-top-stone-path-background-remnants.png ? The error "IDAT: incorrect data check" comes from libpng, pointing towards a bad byte somehow. Can you upload a copy of this file from your system so we can inspect it? Have you uninstalled / reinstalled Factorio as part of testing yet? The fact that it only occasionally fails to load using this code path (but works on a re-attempt) suggests to me that it is an intermittent I/O error, such as a flipped-bit on-disk, a failing Flash controller, or possibly bad memory.

I would start by running smartctl -a /dev/sdX to see if there are any immediate Hardware Errors, followed by e2fsck from a LiveUSB stick to verify that the filesystem is not corrupted. There are I/O tests you can run as well (using dd, fio, or custom scripts) to verify that the same data is being Read as was Written.

Good Luck!

Posted: **Tue Aug 26, 2025 3:37 pm**

1. Storage: The game and all data are installed on same NVMe SSD (Samsung MZVLQ512HALU-00000, 512 GB).
2. File: It is not always the same file. Sometimes the error points to one PNG, sometimes to another.
Example from the latest occurrence (permissions shown):

Code: Select all

   -rwxrwxr-x 1 anton anton 3158903 сер 25 16:42 /home/anton/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/data/base/graphics/entity/character/level1_running_gun.png

I will attach the log together with both the previously failing file and the newly failing file.
3. Reinstallation: For this round of testing I did not reinstall Factorio — I wanted to wait for feedback. Interestingly, the next morning the game started normally without reinstalling.
4. SMART results:
- Drive model: Samsung MZVLQ512HALU-00000
- Health: PASSED
- Percentage used: 4%
- Media and Data Integrity Errors: 0
- Error Information Log Entries: 4447 (all with status "Invalid Field in Command")
Full `smartctl -a` output is available below if needed.
5. Filesystem check: I will run `e2fsck` from a LiveUSB after posting this update.
6. Reproduction:
Besides the intermittent crashes on simple restarts, I have found a more consistent way to trigger it:

Play the game for some time.
Save.
Exit back to the main menu.
Leave the game sitting at the menu for a long time (in my case more than an hour).
Press "Exit".
The next launch is very likely to crash, reporting missing or inaccessible assets.

I am attaching:

New `factorio-current.log`
The file reported in this crash
The file reported in the previous crash
Save file from the last session

Code: Select all

smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.14.0-28-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number:                       SAMSUNG MZVLQ512HALU-00000
Serial Number:                      S4Y4NF0N458148
Firmware Version:                   FXV7000Q
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID:            0x144d
IEEE OUI Identifier:                0x002538
Total NVM Capacity:                 512 110 190 592 [512 GB]
Unallocated NVM Capacity:           0
Controller ID:                      5
NVMe Version:                       1.3
Number of Namespaces:               1
Namespace 1 Size/Capacity:          512 110 190 592 [512 GB]
Namespace 1 Utilization:            43 256 987 648 [43,2 GB]
Namespace 1 Formatted LBA Size:     512
Namespace 1 IEEE EUI-64:            002538 a401c33f21
Local Time is:                      Tue Aug 26 18:28:07 2025 EEST
Firmware Updates (0x16):            3 Slots, no Reset required
Optional Admin Commands (0x0017):   Security Format Frmw_DL Self_Test
Optional NVM Commands (0x005f):     Comp Wr_Unc DS_Mngmt Wr_Zero Sav/Sel_Feat Timestmp
Log Page Attributes (0x0f):         S/H_per_NS Cmd_Eff_Lg Ext_Get_Lg Telmtry_Lg
Maximum Data Transfer Size:         512 Pages
Warning  Comp. Temp. Threshold:     82 Celsius
Critical Comp. Temp. Threshold:     85 Celsius

Supported Power States
St Op     Max   Active     Idle   RL RT WL WT  Ent_Lat  Ex_Lat
 0 +     4.83W       -        -    0  0  0  0        0       0
 1 +     3.54W       -        -    1  1  1  1        0       0
 2 +     3.04W       -        -    2  2  2  2        0     500
 3 -   0.0500W       -        -    3  3  3  3      210    1200
 4 -   0.0050W       -        -    4  4  4  4     1000    9000

Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1)
Id Fmt  Data  Metadt  Rel_Perf
 0 +     512       0         0

=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02)
Critical Warning:                   0x00
Temperature:                        24 Celsius
Available Spare:                    100%
Available Spare Threshold:          10%
Percentage Used:                    4%
Data Units Read:                    34 779 849 [17,8 TB]
Data Units Written:                 25 235 144 [12,9 TB]
Host Read Commands:                 349 295 307
Host Write Commands:                299 537 750
Controller Busy Time:               3 356
Power Cycles:                       2 902
Power On Hours:                     1 335
Unsafe Shutdowns:                   149
Media and Data Integrity Errors:    0
Error Information Log Entries:      4 447
Warning  Comp. Temperature Time:    0
Critical Comp. Temperature Time:    0
Temperature Sensor 1:               24 Celsius

Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 16 of 64 entries)
Num   ErrCount  SQId   CmdId  Status  PELoc          LBA  NSID    VS  Message
  0       4447     0  0x000c  0x4004      -            0     0     -  Invalid Field in Command

Self-test Log (NVMe Log 0x06)
Self-test status: No self-test in progress
No Self-tests Logged

Posted: **Tue Aug 26, 2025 6:03 pm**

Additional test results

I booted from a LiveUSB and ran a full filesystem check:

sudo e2fsck -f -v -c /dev/nvme0n1p2

Result: FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED (so some inconsistencies were fixed).
No bad blocks were found.

After rebooting back into the system (without reinstalling Factorio), the game started launching again - similar to the previous time.
I will now try to reproduce the issue again using the steps described earlier.

Code: Select all

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo e2fsck -f -v -c /dev/nvme0n1p2
e2fsck 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
Checking for bad blocks (read-only test): done
/dev/nvme0n1p2: Updating bad block inode.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information

/dev/nvme0n1p2: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

      435048 inodes used (1.39%, out of 31244288)
        1145 non-contiguous files (0.3%)
         702 non-contiguous directories (0.2%)
             # of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 0/0/0
             Extent depth histogram: 359421/423
     9586327 blocks used (7.67%, out of 124949581)
           0 bad blocks
           1 large file

      315708 regular files
       42563 directories
           0 character device files
           0 block device files
           1 fifo
      116604 links
       76766 symbolic links (75194 fast symbolic links)
           1 socket
------------
      551643 files

Posted: **Tue Aug 26, 2025 7:06 pm**

Update
I tried reproducing the issue by simply launching the game and staying in the main menu for about an hour — this time it did not crash afterwards.
There is hope that this was indeed a problem on my side.

Tomorrow after work I will try again with the full sequence:

play for a while
save
return to the main menu
wait for ~1h
exit
restart the game

I will definitely report back with the results.
Hopefully this was just an NVMe / filesystem problem (although it is a bit strange, because on Fedora 42 I had the same crashes with a fresh btrfs setup, while currently I am on ext4).

Posted: **Tue Aug 26, 2025 9:56 pm**

ant-kul wrote: Tue Aug 26, 2025 3:37 pm6. Reproduction:
Besides the intermittent crashes on simple restarts, I have found a more consistent way to trigger it:

Play the game for some time.

Save.

Exit back to the main menu.

Leave the game sitting at the menu for a long time (in my case more than an hour).

Press "Exit".

The next launch is very likely to crash, reporting missing or inaccessible assets.

Having inconsistencies in the filesystem is never a good sign - even if they were "repairable", there may be more issues with individual files. If this was my machine I would start by Formatting the disk clean, and/or installing an entirely new Disk. I am very paranoid about data loss, so take that with a grain of salt.

How "busy" is the system during the hour of waiting? Are you closing/opening lots of applications, or is the computer just sitting idle? Can you post the output of free -m ? In particular, I am interested in the size of the "buff/cache" from Before the game is launched, While it is running, After it is closed, Waiting an Hour, and then Before / While when the issue recurs.

My theory is that you have some Memory which is returning Errors and/or is returning incorrect Data (due to lack of ECC) on a subsequent Read. Linux will "cache" files in-memory if possible to avoid re-reading it from a potentially slow HDD/SSD... if the PNG's data is being corrupted somehow, then it makes perfect sense for the decompression to fail due to a bad checksum. The bad cell is probably high-up in the Virtual Address Space, which is why you are not seeing more runtime errors from "often used" bits of Memory, which would result in a Kernel Segfault or similar.

I would suggest running Memtest as a next step to help rule in/out Memory issues.

Good Luck! This is a genuinely interesting failure mode.

Posted: **Wed Aug 27, 2025 2:39 am**

Looks like hardware error. Could be bad RAM, CPU, motherboard, for example. I am gaming on Linux and never had even one single crash.
OP please check memtest86+, also consider using Btrfs for full filesystem checksumming, to find out what is wrong. Reinstall to Btrfs and stay on it.

Posted: **Wed Aug 27, 2025 9:01 am**

Update
I managed to reproduce the crash even without waiting in the main menu.
Afterwards I ran the Steam "Verify integrity of game files" and it reported/fixed 1 file.

At this point it looks like the problem was indeed on my side.
Thank you for the help and the time spent investigating!
I will go ahead and plan to buy a new SSD.

Additional note
Regarding the possibility of faulty RAM: I already ran memtest for ~24 hours earlier — no errors were found.
Even before that, I had a different set of RAM modules installed and the problem still persisted.

This strongly points towards the SSD (and not RAM) as the source of the issue.

Posted: **Wed Aug 27, 2025 9:20 am**

Don't rule out CPU and motherboard yet. Could be some electrical issue there, damaging data on PCI-E bus. Maybe test that NVMe SSD in another computer?
Great program for testing data integrity is F3 (Fight Flash Fraud), widely available in Linux repositories. I suggest giving it a go from LiveUSB.
Also if you are buying a new SSD, you could test it before installing system on it.

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