Official Linux binaries incompatible with libxml2 >= 2.14

[v1s1n]

Hello! Just wanted to let you know that on archlinux, libxml2 has been updated such that libxml2.so.2 no longer exists.

> ls -lah /usr/lib | grep libxml2.so
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    13 Apr 26 17:57 libxml2.so -> libxml2.so.16
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    17 Apr 26 17:57 libxml2.so.16 -> libxml2.so.16.0.2
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1.3M Apr 26 17:57 libxml2.so.16.0.2

Corroborated here.

ReaPack currently fails to run with this error:

swell: dlopen() failed: libxml2.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[cfillion]

There are a few workarounds:

• Installing Arch's libxml2-legacy package
• Using Arch's reapack package
• Building ReaPack from source

I've started some groundwork in the libxml2.14 branch for having the official builds support both libxml <= 2.13 and >= 2.14, but I think the approach I've taken to binary compatibility need to be rethought. Maybe a separate copy libxml2/OpenSSL/curl/SQlite should be included instead of using the distro's (at the cost of not receiving security updates from the user's distro anymore...).

[twolfe683]

Just an FYI. On my Debian 12 system, this commit breaks the latest version of ReaPack with the error:

swell: dlopen() failed: libxml2.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I can manually link /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxml2.so.2.9.14 to libxml2.so and it works.

[cfillion]

Ah yes... libxml2.so is provided by a separate package libxml2-dev on distros that split them (Debian, Fedora...). Reverting this (and hot-fixing v1.2.5.1 binaries), thanks!

[jardous]

Installing Arch's libxml2-legacy package worked for me

[kawa-sanmyaku]

Hi, looking forward to a solution that doesn't rely on the distribution or building from source, since I use REAPER as a portable :( building from source did work but I have yet to test if the .so will work in other installations

[silentbirdie]

issue is also affecting ubuntu studio 25.10 so I'd assume all official ubuntu 25.10 derivatives as well. Hopefully this get's fixed when possible. luckily I don't need any new plugins soon.