Andrey Thanks for the info. I purged every stray lib I could find - double checked all ld_library_path entries and discovered there was a shared lib from a previous build on my path which was almost certainly the culprit in this case. However, now the filesystem error has gone and I'm left with a very similar one which previously was bothering me from boost.serialization. This one I can't make disappear by cleaning paths because there's nothing bad left that might be a problem. I tried this time with boost_1.54 just to see if anything changed. does this stack trace look familiar to anyone? thanks JB #0 0x00000080a0b272f4 in ._dl_fixup () from /lib64/ld64.so.1 #1 0x00000080a0b2fd78 in ._dl_runtime_resolve () from /lib64/ld64.so.1 #2 0x00000fffb689869c in ._ZN5boost13serialization9singletonINS_7archive6detail22archive_serializer_mapIN3hpx4util24portable_binary_oarchiveEEEE12get_instanceEv () at /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/home/biddisco/apps/gcc-4.8.2/boost_1_54_0/include/boost-1_54/boost/serialization/singleton.hpp:128 #3 0x00000fffb3a93008 in ._Z41__static_initialization_and_destruction_0ii () at /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/home/biddisco/apps/gcc-4.8.2/boost_1_54_0/include/boost-1_54/boost/serialization/singleton.hpp:149 #4 0x00000fffb3a93064 in ._GLOBAL__sub_I_portable_binary_oarchive.cpp () at /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/home/biddisco/src/hpx/src/util/portable_binary_oarchive.cpp:207 #5 0x00000fffb3a969f8 in .__do_global_ctors_aux () from /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/home/biddisco/bgas/gcc/build/hpx/lib/hpx/libhpx_serializationd.so.0 #6 0x00000fffb3a89ae4 in ._init () from /gpfs/bbp.cscs.ch/home/biddisco/bgas/gcc/build/hpx/lib/hpx/libhpx_serializationd.so.0 #7 0x00000080a0b27bf0 in ._dl_init_internal () from /lib64/ld64.so.1 #8 0x00000080a0b154dc in ._dl_start_user () from /lib64/ld64.so.1