# Complex workaround needed. Why?
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/complex-workaround-needed-why/136371
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** question, package-compiler
**Created:** [March 24, 2026, 11:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/complex-workaround-needed-why/136371 "2026-03-24T23:24:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2026, 11:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/complex-workaround-needed-why/136371/1 "2026-03-24T23:24:30Z")
I need this workaround to avoid crashes due to version conflicts od shared libraries on Linux:
```bash
if [["$(uname -s)" == "Linux"]]; then
export FONTCONFIG_FILE=/etc/fonts/fonts.conf
# On Ubuntu 22.04 the system has: OpenSSL 3.0.2 (too old), fontconfig 2.13 (missing
# FcConfigSetDefaultSubstitute). The dynamic linker reuses already-loaded system libs
# instead of the bundled ones, so we force the bundled versions in with LD_PRELOAD.
# libiconv/libintl are absent on the system (glibc-internal on Ubuntu), so we add
# their artifact dirs to LD_LIBRARY_PATH so dependency resolution finds them without
# hitting circular-preload ordering problems.
_PRELOADS=()
_LIBDIRS=()
# Get all Julia depot paths
_DEPOT_PATHS=()
if [[-n "${JULIA_DEPOT_PATH:-}"]]; then
IFS=':' read -ra _DEPOT_PATHS <<< "$JULIA_DEPOT_PATH"
else
_DEPOT_PATHS=("$HOME/.julia")
fi
# libcrypto: override stale system version via LD_PRELOAD
_BUNDLED=""
for _depot in "${_DEPOT_PATHS[@]}"; do
_BUNDLED=$(find "$_depot/artifacts" -maxdepth 3 -name "libcrypto.so.3" -path "*/lib/*" 2>/dev/null | head -1)
[[-n "$_BUNDLED"]] && break
done
[[-n "$_BUNDLED"]] && _PRELOADS+=("$_BUNDLED")
# libiconv + libintl: absent on Ubuntu 22.04, add dirs to LD_LIBRARY_PATH so
# circular dep between them resolves naturally without preload ordering issues.
for _libname in libiconv.so.2 libintl.so.8; do
_BUNDLED=""
for _depot in "${_DEPOT_PATHS[@]}"; do
_BUNDLED=$(find "$_depot/artifacts" -maxdepth 3 -name "$_libname" -path "*/lib/*" 2>/dev/null | head -1)
[[-n "$_BUNDLED"]] && break
done
if [[-n "$_BUNDLED"]]; then
_dir=$(dirname "$_BUNDLED")
[[":${_LIBDIRS[*]}:" != *":$_dir:"* ]] && _LIBDIRS+=("$_dir")
fi
done
# libfontconfig: override stale system version via LD_PRELOAD; also add its dir to
# LD_LIBRARY_PATH so its deps (libiconv etc.) are found during preload resolution.
# Pick the version that exports FcConfigSetDefaultSubstitute (needed by Pango ≥ 1.57).
_BUNDLED=""
for _depot in "${_DEPOT_PATHS[@]}"; do
for _fc in $(find "$_depot/artifacts" -maxdepth 3 -name "libfontconfig.so.1" -path "*/lib/*" 2>/dev/null); do
if nm -D "$_fc" 2>/dev/null | grep -q FcConfigSetDefaultSubstitute; then
_BUNDLED="$_fc"
break 2
fi
done
done
if [[-n "$_BUNDLED"]]; then
_dir=$(dirname "$_BUNDLED")
[[":${_LIBDIRS[*]}:" != *":$_dir:"* ]] && _LIBDIRS+=("$_dir")
_PRELOADS+=("$_BUNDLED")
fi
[[${#_PRELOADS[@]} -gt 0 ]] && export LD_PRELOAD=$(IFS=:; echo "${_PRELOADS[*]}")
if [[${#_LIBDIRS[@]} -gt 0 ]]; then
_extra=$(IFS=:; echo "${_LIBDIRS[*]}")
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${_extra}${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
fi
unset _PRELOADS _LIBDIRS _BUNDLED _DEPOT_PATHS _depot _fc _dir _extra _libname
fi
echo "LD_PRELOAD was: $LD_PRELOAD"
echo "LD_LIBRARY_PATH was: $LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
# On Linux, wrap julia to also preload the bundled libglib for Julia processes only.
# The system libglib is often too old for GLMakie/Glib_jll (missing g_string_copy).
# Scoping this to Julia calls prevents breaking system commands (uname, git, sed)
# which would fail if artifact libglib's transitive deps (libintl) are not satisfied.
if [["$(uname -s)" == "Linux"]]; then
_JULIA_GLIB_PRELOADS=""
for _depot in $(echo "${JULIA_DEPOT_PATH:-$HOME/.julia}" | tr ':' ' '); do
_f=$(find "$_depot/artifacts" -maxdepth 3 -name "libglib-2.0.so.0" -path "*/lib/*" 2>/dev/null | head -1)
if [[-n "$_f"]]; then
_glib_dir=$(dirname "$_f")
_intl=""
[[-f "$_glib_dir/libintl.so.8"]] && _intl="$_glib_dir/libintl.so.8:"
_JULIA_GLIB_PRELOADS="${_intl}$_f"
break
fi
done
unset _depot _f _glib_dir _intl
if [[-n "$_JULIA_GLIB_PRELOADS"]]; then
julia() {
LD_PRELOAD="${LD_PRELOAD:+$LD_PRELOAD:}$_JULIA_GLIB_PRELOADS" command julia "$@"
}
fi
fi
```
Why is this needed for [KiteModels.jl](https://github.com/OpenSourceAWE/KiteModels.jl)?
Possible reasons:
- conflicts between Conda, PyPlot and Makie
- differences between CI and local machine
- the use of PackageCompiler
Still, I think there must be something very wrong if I need such a workaround. Any ideas what?
---
### Author:  [@giordano](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/giordano)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2026, 12:38am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/complex-workaround-needed-why/136371/2 "2026-03-25T00:38:50Z")
Might be clearer if you explained the issue you’re trying to solve, rather than the overcomplicated workaround you (?) came up with.
---
### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2026, 6:26am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/complex-workaround-needed-why/136371/3 "2026-03-25T06:26:09Z")
You can see what happens without this workaround in the failed CI runs here: [here](https://github.com/OpenSourceAWE/AWEMeta.jl/actions/runs/23508387509/job/68422468144)
```julia-auto
SciMLBase → SciMLBaseMakieExt
Failed to precompile SciMLBaseMakieExt [565f26a4-c902-5eae-92ad-e10714a9d9de] to "/tmp/testdepot/compiled/v1.12/SciMLBaseMakieExt/jl_SBQvyJ".
ERROR: LoadError: InitError: could not load library "/tmp/testdepot/artifacts/654863f618f22eeb74ce2d1b4996666e65e596e4/lib/libgio-2.0.so"
/tmp/testdepot/artifacts/654863f618f22eeb74ce2d1b4996666e65e596e4/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_string_copy
Stacktrace:
[1] #dlopen#3
@ ./libdl.jl:120 [inlined]
[2] dlopen(s::String, flags::UInt32)
@ Base.Libc.Libdl ./libdl.jl:119
[3] macro expansion
```
and [here](https://github.com/OpenSourceAWE/AWEMeta.jl/actions/runs/23422804454/job/68265246605#step:6:2588):
```julia-auto
┌ KiteViewers
│ ┌ Warning: Could not find font /usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeMono.ttf, using TeX Gyre Heros Makie
│ └ @ Makie /tmp/testdepot/packages/Makie/Vn16E/src/conversions.jl:1456
└
[ Info: PackageCompiler: Executing /tmp/test/KiteModels.jl/test/test_for_precompile.jl => /tmp/jl_packagecompiler_C8f6P5/jl_I0qAVG
ERROR: LoadError: InitError: could not load library "/tmp/testdepot/artifacts/b2e490a224990d92e99cc4463b8df48c8c454971/lib/libpangocairo-1.0.so"
/tmp/testdepot/artifacts/b2e490a224990d92e99cc4463b8df48c8c454971/lib/libpangoft2-1.0.so.0: undefined symbol: FcConfigSetDefaultSubstitute
Stacktrace:
```
and [here](https://github.com/OpenSourceAWE/AWEMeta.jl/actions/runs/23396303870/job/68060100508)
```julia-auto
[ Info: PackageCompiler: Executing /tmp/test/KiteModels.jl/test/test_for_precompile.jl => /tmp/jl_packagecompiler_H4vwzh/jl_qyu1Y9
ERROR: LoadError: InitError: could not load library "/tmp/testdepot/artifacts/b2e490a224990d92e99cc4463b8df48c8c454971/lib/libpangocairo-1.0.so"
/tmp/testdepot/artifacts/b2e490a224990d92e99cc4463b8df48c8c454971/lib/libpangoft2-1.0.so.0: undefined symbol: FcConfigSetDefaultSubstitute
```
### Summary
Errors when creating a system image due to version conflicts of shared libraries:
| library | error |
| --- | --- |
| libpangocairo-1.0.so | undefined symbol: FcConfigSetDefaultSubstitute |
| libgio-2.0.so, libgobject-2.0.so.0 | undefined symbol: g\_string\_copy |
| libpangoft2-1.0.so.0 | undefined symbol: FcConfigSetDefaultSubstitute |
These errors happen both locally and on CI. The workaround is to pre-load the Julia versions of these libraries. But why is this workaround needed ? Is there a bug in one of the packages?
---
### Author:  [@JoshuaLampert](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/JoshuaLampert)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2026, 7:31am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/complex-workaround-needed-why/136371/4 "2026-03-25T07:31:35Z")
This looks like [Makie Precompilation failed in Linux](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-precompilation-failed-in-linux/136368) and should be fixed by now.