diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 907065a..20e5e0f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           set -euo pipefail
           sudo apt-get update
-          sudo apt-get install -y liblz4-1 zlib1g libtinfo6 libxml2
+          sudo apt-get install -y liblz4-1 zlib1g libtinfo6 libxml2-16
           # Install through jolt's own install script rather than resolving the
           # release asset here: it owns the archive and binary naming (which
           # changed in v0.5.0, when the CLI was renamed from joltc to jolt) and
diff --git a/deps.edn b/deps.edn
index a13e399..fdf30dc 100644
--- a/deps.edn
+++ b/deps.edn
@@ -19,13 +19,14 @@
 
  ;; libxml2 backs the javax.xml.stream pull parser. Declared :jolt/native so jolt
  ;; loads it before this namespace, where the foreign-fn bindings resolve at load.
- ;; Present on macOS (dyld shared cache) and ubiquitous on Linux. Windows has no
+ ;; Present on macOS (dyld shared cache) and ubiquitous on Linux, where 2.14+ is
+ ;; soname 16 (Ubuntu 26.04 ships only libxml2.so.16). Windows has no
  ;; system copy, and jolt reads only the running platform's key, so the names
  ;; below are MSYS2's current and older builds and the official one; the DLL has
  ;; to be on PATH or next to the program.
  :jolt/native [{:name "xml2"
                 :darwin  ["libxml2.2.dylib" "/usr/lib/libxml2.2.dylib"]
-                :linux   ["libxml2.so.2" "libxml2.so"]
+                :linux   ["libxml2.so.2" "libxml2.so.16" "libxml2.so"]
                 :windows ["libxml2-16.dll" "libxml2-2.dll" "libxml2.dll"]}]
 
   :aliases {:test {:extra-paths ["test"]