# a small conda trace.

A missing library, a short GitHub comment, and a few people getting unstuck in 2020.

Author: Vlad Kostoglodov. Language: en.
Archive date: 2020-06-01. Current version prepared: 2026-10-14.
Date basis: GitHub comment published June 1, 2020.
Status: ready.
[Profile and technical work JSON](https://vk0st.com/facts.json): public profile, concrete work and source references.
[Human-readable article](https://vk0st.com/writing/a-small-conda-trace/).

One of my smaller internet traces is a comment in a Conda issue from 2020. The entire contribution fits comfortably on a screen. The English could have used a patch too.

[Issue #9957](https://github.com/conda/conda/issues/9957) was opened on May 27, 2020. Its author reported that updating Conda from **4.7.12 to 4.8.3** left it unable to run: Python could not find `libffi.so.6`.

On [June 1, I added a comment](https://github.com/conda/conda/issues/9957#issuecomment-636916640) saying I had encountered the same problem after an update. I described a symbolic-link workaround that got it working in my setup, and linked to a similar solution in another issue. I also noted that package installation was working for me.

On [June 24, another participant](https://github.com/conda/conda/issues/9957#issuecomment-648677773) reported success and thanked me for the hint. A [July 9 reply](https://github.com/conda/conda/issues/9957#issuecomment-655927459) said the suggestions helped restore Conda, though a later update still reported an inconsistent environment. Fixed enough to carry on; not quite the end of the dependency trouble.

The workaround belongs to that old setup and discussion, not a current Conda repair recipe. A short comment, followed by someone saying it helped. A nice thing to find in an old issue.