My Factorio Info
Factorio Headless Setup
Updated 2025/07/17
These steps were done with Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
Resources:
- Multiplayer Factorio wiki
- Stable Factorio headless server
- I opted out of buying Space Age, the content and reviews didn't seem to match my interests. So I used
https://www.factorio.com/get-download/1.1.110/headless/linux64
for latest version base Factorio.
- I opted out of buying Space Age, the content and reviews didn't seem to match my interests. So I used
Check that your version of glibc is >= 2.18 using ldd --version
$ ldd --version ldd (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.35-0ubuntu3.7) 2.35 Copyright (C) 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Written by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
Output of ldd command confirms glibc version >2.18.
Switch to $ cd /opt
directory and download latest Factorio stable headless version (1.1.110 as of this writing)
$ sudo wget https://www.factorio.com/get-download/1.1.110/headless/linux64 [sudo] password for anon: --2025-07-18 04:28:18-- https://www.factorio.com/get-download/1.1.110/headless/linux64 Resolving www.factorio.com (www.factorio.com)... 2606:4700:20::ac43:47c5, 2606:4700:20::681a:e58, 2606:4700:20::681a:f58, ... Connecting to www.factorio.com (www.factorio.com)|2606:4700:20::ac43:47c5|:443... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found Location: https://dl.factorio.com/releases/1.1.110_01j5dt7yvjeynsrerwqh7za3dc/factorio_headless_x64_1.1.110.tar.xz?secure=4waQAG5E3DK9ebGk11tyWg,1752820099 [following] --2025-07-18 04:28:19-- https://dl.factorio.com/releases/1.1.110_01j5dt7yvjeynsrerwqh7za3dc/factorio_headless_x64_1.1.110.tar.xz?secure=4waQAG5E3DK9ebGk11tyWg,1752820099 Resolving dl.factorio.com (dl.factorio.com)... 2a02:6ea0:f900::3, 109.61.86.69 Connecting to dl.factorio.com (dl.factorio.com)|2a02:6ea0:f900::3|:443... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 57187836 (55M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: ‘linux64’ linux64 100%[=================================================>] 54.54M 24.9MB/s in 2.2s 2025-07-18 04:28:21 (24.9 MB/s) - ‘linux64’ saved [57187836/57187836]
Rename file to match version (1.1.87 in this example)
$ sudo mv linux64 factorio-headless_linux_1.1.110.tar.xz
Extract archived and zipped file
$ sudo tar -xJf factorio-headless_linux_1.1.110.tar.xz $ ls -l total 55852 drwxr-xr-x 8 factorio factorio 4096 Jul 18 04:30 factorio -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 57187836 Aug 16 2024 factorio-headless_linux_1.1.110.tar.xz
Remove file (save space, you can always download the file again, if needed) using sudo rm <filename.tar.xz>
Add a new user to run factorio and assign ownership of /opt/factorio
directory to same user
$ sudo useradd factorio $ sudo chown -R factorio:factorio /opt/factorio/
Verify permissions show factorio for both user and group with ls -ld /opt/factorio
$ ls -ld /opt/factorio/ drwxr-xr-x 4 factorio factorio 4096 May 4 17:07 /opt/factorio/
Test Factorio binary by switching to factorio user then start server
robot01@apu01:/opt$ sudo su - factorio No directory, logging in with HOME=/ $
As factorio user create /opt/factorio/
saves directory. I used saves directory.
$ mkdir /opt/factorio/saves
Start server and look for something like "File /savename does not exist."
$ /opt/factorio/bin/x64/factorio --start-server savename 0.000 2024-05-04 17:53:44; Factorio 1.1.107 (build 62234, linux64, headless) 0.020 Operating system: Linux (Ubuntu 22.04) 0.020 Program arguments: "/opt/factorio/bin/x64/factorio" "--start-server" "savename" 0.020 Config path: /opt/factorio/config/config.ini 0.020 Read data path: /opt/factorio/data 0.020 Write data path: /opt/factorio [1763296/1874134MB] 0.020 Binaries path: /opt/factorio/bin 0.024 System info: [CPU: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900K, 32 cores, RAM: 64055 MB] 0.024 Environment: DISPLAY=<unset> WAYLAND_DISPLAY=<unset> DESKTOP_SESSION=<unset> XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=<unset> XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=<unset> __GL_FSAA_MODE=<unset> __GL_LOG_MAX_ANISO=<unset> __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=<unset> __GL_SORT_FBCONFIGS=<unset> __GL_YIELD=<unset> 0.024 Running in headless mode 0.046 Loading mod core 0.0.0 (data.lua) 0.062 Loading mod base 1.1.107 (data.lua) 0.152 Loading mod base 1.1.107 (data-updates.lua) 0.182 Checksum for core: 607699937 0.182 Checksum of base: 1054619811 0.277 Prototype list checksum: 3034860339 0.299 Info PlayerData.cpp:78: Local player-data.json unavailable 0.299 Info PlayerData.cpp:83: Cloud player-data.json unavailable 0.301 Factorio initialised 0.302 Info ServerSynchronizer.cpp:29: nextHeartbeatSequenceNumber(0) initialized Synchronizer nextTickClosureTick(0). 0.302 Info ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:814: updateTick(4294967295) changing state from(Ready) to(PreparedToHostGame) 0.302 Info ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:814: updateTick(4294967295) changing state from(PreparedToHostGame) to(CreatingGame) 0.304 Loading map /opt/factorio/savename 0.305 Error ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:92: MultiplayerManager failed: "File /opt/factorio/savename does not exist." 0.305 Info ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:814: updateTick(4294967295) changing state from(CreatingGame) to(InitializationFailed) 0.305 Info CommandLineMultiplayer.cpp:219: Exit point. 0.306 Info ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:154: Quitting multiplayer connection. 0.306 Info ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:814: updateTick(4294967295) changing state from(InitializationFailed) to(Closed) 0.321 Info UDPSocket.cpp:233: Closing socket 0.322 Goodbye
At this point you can load up saved games or create some games.
Publish game on Factorio matching server
Copy /opt/factorio/data/server-settings.example.json to /opt/factorio/data/server-settings.json.
$ sudo cp /opt/factorio/data/server-settings.example.json /opt/factorio/data/server-settings.json
Edit appropriate server-settings.json values.
I used _comment_token versus password value. The appropriate value is located in %appdata%\Factorio\player-data.json under the key name "service-token". The service-token is populated after you've browsed the multiplayer servers via your Factorio game client.
My player-data.json for user "anon" on Windows was located at C:\Users\anon\AppData\Roaming\Factorio.
Make any changes to config ini
robot01@apu01:/opt/factorio$ sudo vi /opt/factorio/config/config.ini
Update headless server
download latest headless version
unzip and untar
sudo tar -xJf linux64
change permissions to your dedicated factorio user
sudo chown -R factorio:factorio factorio
launch game, example with saved game called "spoon.zip":
/opt/factorio/bin/x64/factorio --start-server /opt/factorio/saves/spoon.zip
Updating Factorio
- Download the latest copy of the headless server using the steps above.
- Move and rename the headless server following the steps above.
- Assign ownership of
/opt/factorio
directory to factorio user used above.