diff --git a/packaging/python/Dockerfile b/packaging/python/Dockerfile
index 80cff2b56c..10204232d3 100644
--- a/packaging/python/Dockerfile
+++ b/packaging/python/Dockerfile
@@ -3,6 +3,17 @@ ARG MANYLINUX_IMAGE=manylinux_2_28_x86_64
 FROM quay.io/pypa/$MANYLINUX_IMAGE
 LABEL authors="Pramod Kumbhar, Fernando Pereira, Alexandru Savulescu, Goran Jelic-Cizmek"
 
+# problem: libstdc++ is _not_ forwards compatible, so if we try to compile mod
+# files on a system that ships a version of it older than the one used for
+# building the wheel itself, we'll get linker errors.
+# solution: use a well-defined oldest-supported version of GCC
+# we need to do this _before_ building any libraries from source
+ARG OLDEST_SUPPORTED_GCC_VERSION=10
+RUN yum install -y gcc-toolset-${OLDEST_SUPPORTED_GCC_VERSION}-gcc gcc-toolset-${OLDEST_SUPPORTED_GCC_VERSION}-gcc-c++
+ENV PATH /opt/rh/gcc-toolset-${OLDEST_SUPPORTED_GCC_VERSION}/root/usr/bin:$PATH
+ENV LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/rh/gcc-toolset-${OLDEST_SUPPORTED_GCC_VERSION}/root/usr/lib64:/opt/rh/gcc-toolset-${OLDEST_SUPPORTED_GCC_VERSION}/root/usr/lib:/opt/rh/gcc-toolset-${OLDEST_SUPPORTED_GCC_VERSION}/root/usr/lib64/dyninst:/opt/rh/gcc-toolset-${OLDEST_SUPPORTED_GCC_VERSION}/root/usr/lib/dyninst
+ENV DEVTOOLSET_ROOTPATH=/opt/rh/gcc-toolset-${OLDEST_SUPPORTED_GCC_VERSION}/root
+
 RUN gcc --version && python3 --version
 
 # install basic packages
diff --git a/packaging/python/build_wheels.bash b/packaging/python/build_wheels.bash
index 564eb9f49a..cbf62ffccf 100755
--- a/packaging/python/build_wheels.bash
+++ b/packaging/python/build_wheels.bash
@@ -221,7 +221,9 @@ case "$1" in
         MPI_INCLUDE_HEADERS="${BREW_PREFIX}/opt/openmpi/include;${BREW_PREFIX}/opt/mpich/include"
         build_wheel_osx $(which python3) "$coreneuron" "$MPI_INCLUDE_HEADERS"
     else
-        MPI_INCLUDE_HEADERS="/usr/include/openmpi-$(uname -m);/usr/include/mpich-$(uname -m)"
+        # first two are for AlmaLinux 8 (default for manylinux_2_28);
+        # second two are for Debian/Ubuntu derivatives
+        MPI_INCLUDE_HEADERS="/usr/include/openmpi-$(uname -m);/usr/include/mpich-$(uname -m);/usr/lib/$(uname -m)-linux-gnu/openmpi/include;/usr/include/$(uname -m)-linux-gnu/mpich"
         build_wheel_linux $(which python3) "$coreneuron" "$MPI_INCLUDE_HEADERS"
     fi
     ls wheelhouse/
diff --git a/packaging/python/test_wheels.sh b/packaging/python/test_wheels.sh
index 66d3f27009..a53dfce3f2 100755
--- a/packaging/python/test_wheels.sh
+++ b/packaging/python/test_wheels.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ set -xe
 # See CMake's CMAKE_HOST_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR documentation
 # On the systems where we are building wheel we can rely
 # on uname -m. Note that this is just wheel testing script.
-ARCH_DIR=`uname -m`
+ARCH_DIR="$(uname -m)"
 
 if [ ! -f setup.py ]; then
     echo "Error: Please launch $0 from the root dir"
@@ -175,23 +175,16 @@ run_parallel_test() {
       export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=${BREW_PREFIX}/opt/open-mpi/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
       run_mpi_test "${BREW_PREFIX}/opt/open-mpi/bin/mpirun" "OpenMPI" ""
 
-    # CI Linux or Azure Linux
-    elif [[ "$CI_OS_NAME" == "linux" || "$AGENT_OS" == "Linux" ]]; then
+    # CI Linux or Azure Linux or circleCI build (all on Debian/Ubuntu)
+    elif [[ "$CI_OS_NAME" == "linux" || "$AGENT_OS" == "Linux" || "$CIRCLECI" == "true" ]]; then
       # make debugging easier
       sudo update-alternatives --get-selections | grep mpi
-      sudo update-alternatives --list mpi-x86_64-linux-gnu
+      sudo update-alternatives --list mpi-${ARCH_DIR}-linux-gnu
       # choose mpich
-      sudo update-alternatives --set mpi-x86_64-linux-gnu /usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/mpich
+      sudo update-alternatives --set mpi-${ARCH_DIR}-linux-gnu /usr/include/${ARCH_DIR}-linux-gnu/mpich
       run_mpi_test "mpirun.mpich" "MPICH" ""
       # choose openmpi
-      sudo update-alternatives --set mpi-x86_64-linux-gnu /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/openmpi/include
-      run_mpi_test "mpirun.openmpi" "OpenMPI" ""
-
-    # circle-ci build
-    elif [[ "$CIRCLECI" == "true" ]]; then
-      sudo update-alternatives --set mpi-aarch64-linux-gnu /usr/include/aarch64-linux-gnu/mpich
-      run_mpi_test "mpirun.mpich" "MPICH" ""
-      sudo update-alternatives --set mpi-aarch64-linux-gnu /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/openmpi/include
+      sudo update-alternatives --set mpi-${ARCH_DIR}-linux-gnu /usr/lib/${ARCH_DIR}-linux-gnu/openmpi/include
       run_mpi_test "mpirun.openmpi" "OpenMPI" ""
 
     # linux desktop or docker container used for wheel
diff --git a/share/lib/python/scripts/_binwrapper.py b/share/lib/python/scripts/_binwrapper.py
index 1fb7e417ab..906522a376 100755
--- a/share/lib/python/scripts/_binwrapper.py
+++ b/share/lib/python/scripts/_binwrapper.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import shutil
 import subprocess
 import sys
+import warnings
 from importlib.metadata import metadata, PackageNotFoundError
 from importlib.util import find_spec
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -44,8 +45,8 @@ def _set_default_compiler():
     os.environ.setdefault("CXX", ccompiler.compiler_cxx[0])
 
 
-def _check_cpp_compiler_version():
-    """Check if GCC compiler is >= 9.0 otherwise show warning"""
+def _check_cpp_compiler_version(min_version: str):
+    """Check if GCC compiler is >= min supported one, otherwise show warning"""
     try:
         cpp_compiler = os.environ.get("CXX", "")
         version = subprocess.run(
@@ -55,10 +56,9 @@ def _check_cpp_compiler_version():
             version = subprocess.run(
                 [cpp_compiler, "-dumpversion"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE
             ).stdout.decode("utf-8")
-            if Version(version) <= Version("9.0"):
-                print(
-                    "Warning: GCC >= 9.0 is required with this version of NEURON but found",
-                    version,
+            if Version(version) <= Version(min_version):
+                warnings.warn(
+                    f"Warning: GCC >= {min_version} is required with this version of NEURON but found {version}",
                 )
     except:
         pass
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ def _wrap_executable(output_name):
 
     if exe.endswith("nrnivmodl"):
         # To create a wrapper for special (so it also gets ENV vars) we intercept nrnivmodl
-        _check_cpp_compiler_version()
+        _check_cpp_compiler_version("10.0")
         subprocess.check_call([exe, *sys.argv[1:]])
         _wrap_executable("special")
         sys.exit(0)