diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 54661294..dd7269ee 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 name = "PyCall"
 uuid = "438e738f-606a-5dbb-bf0a-cddfbfd45ab0"
 authors = ["Steven G. Johnson <stevenj@mit.edu>", "Yichao Yu <yyc1992@gmail.com>", "Takafumi Arakaki <aka.tkf@gmail.com>", "Simon Kornblith <simon@simonster.com>", "Páll Haraldsson <Pall.Haraldsson@gmail.com>", "Jon Malmaud <malmaud@gmail.com>", "Jake Bolewski <jakebolewski@gmail.com>", "Keno Fischer <keno@alumni.harvard.edu>", "Joel Mason <jobba1@hotmail.com>", "Jameson Nash <vtjnash@gmail.com>", "The JuliaPy development team"]
-version = "1.96.2"
+version = "1.96.4"
 
 [deps]
 Conda = "8f4d0f93-b110-5947-807f-2305c1781a2d"
@@ -16,10 +16,16 @@ VersionParsing = "81def892-9a0e-5fdd-b105-ffc91e053289"
 Conda = "1.9"
 MacroTools = "0.4, 0.5"
 VersionParsing = "1.0"
+
 julia = "1.4"
+Dates = "<0.0.1, 1"
+Libdl = "<0.0.1, 1"
+LinearAlgebra = "<0.0.1, 1"
+Serialization = "<0.0.1, 1"
 
 [extras]
 Test = "8dfed614-e22c-5e08-85e1-65c5234f0b40"
+REPL = "3fa0cd96-eef1-5676-8a61-b3b8758bbffb"
 
 [targets]
-test = ["Test"]
+test = ["Test", "REPL"]
diff --git a/deps/buildutils.jl b/deps/buildutils.jl
index 5eb27b94..f090875e 100644
--- a/deps/buildutils.jl
+++ b/deps/buildutils.jl
@@ -5,7 +5,15 @@ import Conda, Libdl
 
 pyvar(python::AbstractString, mod::AbstractString, var::AbstractString) = chomp(read(pythonenv(`$python -c "import $mod; print($mod.$(var))"`), String))
 
-pyconfigvar(python::AbstractString, var::AbstractString) = pyvar(python, "distutils.sysconfig", "get_config_var('$(var)')")
+function pyconfigvar(python::AbstractString, var::AbstractString)
+    try
+       pyvar(python, "sysconfig", "get_config_var('$(var)')")
+    catch e
+        emsg = sprint(showerror, e)
+        @warn "Encountered error on using `sysconfig`: $emsg. Falling back to `distutils.sysconfig`."
+        pyvar(python, "distutils.sysconfig", "get_config_var('$(var)')")
+    end
+end
 pyconfigvar(python, var, default) = let v = pyconfigvar(python, var)
     v == "None" ? default : v
 end
diff --git a/deps/depsutils.jl b/deps/depsutils.jl
index 35ed1e12..73ae2946 100644
--- a/deps/depsutils.jl
+++ b/deps/depsutils.jl
@@ -64,8 +64,10 @@ function _preserveas!(dest::Vector{UInt8}, ::Type{Cstring}, x::AbstractString)
 end
 
 function _preserveas!(dest::Vector{UInt8}, ::Type{Cwstring}, x::AbstractString)
-    s = reinterpret(UInt8, Base.cconvert(Cwstring, x))
-    copyto!(resize!(dest, length(s)), s)
+    s = reinterpret(UInt8, transcode(Cwchar_t, String(x)))
+    len = length(s)
+    copyto!(resize!(dest, len + sizeof(Cwchar_t)), s)
+    dest[len + 1:len + sizeof(Cwchar_t)] .= 0
     return pointer(dest)
 end
 
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index 96dc4fa3..1486c480 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 using PyCall
 using PyCall: hasproperty
 using Test, Dates, Serialization
+using REPL # for Docs.doc methods
 
 filter(f, itr) = collect(Iterators.filter(f, itr))
 filter(f, d::AbstractDict) = Base.filter(f, d)
@@ -392,12 +393,12 @@ const PyInt = pyversion < v"3" ? Int : Clonglong
     @test !ispynull(pyimport_conda("inspect", "not a conda package"))
     import Conda
     if PyCall.conda
-        # import pyzmq to test PR #294
-        let already_installed = "pyzmq" ∈ Conda._installed_packages()
-            @test !ispynull(pyimport_conda("zmq", "pyzmq"))
-            @test "pyzmq" ∈ Conda._installed_packages()
+        # import six to test PR #294
+        let already_installed = "six" ∈ Conda._installed_packages()
+            @test !ispynull(pyimport_conda("six", "six"))
+            @test "six" ∈ Conda._installed_packages()
             if !already_installed
-                Conda.rm("pyzmq")
+                Conda.rm("six")
             end
         end
     end