diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index f5209e0d210..601264badc0 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -290,8 +290,12 @@ if(ACTS_SETUP_BOOST)
     endif()
 
     if(Boost_VERSION VERSION_EQUAL "1.85.0")
+        set(_boost_version_severity WARNING)
+        if(ACTS_BUILD_EXAMPLES)
+            set(_boost_version_severity FATAL_ERROR)
+        endif()
         message(
-            WARNING
+            ${_boost_version_severity}
             "Boost 1.85.0 is known to be broken (https://github.com/boostorg/container/issues/273). Please use a different version."
         )
     endif()
diff --git a/Tests/UnitTests/Core/Surfaces/SurfaceBoundsTests.cpp b/Tests/UnitTests/Core/Surfaces/SurfaceBoundsTests.cpp
index e150e9a64c9..470512383a0 100644
--- a/Tests/UnitTests/Core/Surfaces/SurfaceBoundsTests.cpp
+++ b/Tests/UnitTests/Core/Surfaces/SurfaceBoundsTests.cpp
@@ -27,13 +27,15 @@ class SurfaceBoundsStub : public SurfaceBounds {
     std::iota(m_values.begin(), m_values.end(), 0);
   }
 
-#if defined(__GNUC__) && __GNUC__ == 13 && !defined(__clang__)
+#if defined(__GNUC__) && (__GNUC__ == 13 || __GNUC__ == 14) && \
+    !defined(__clang__)
 #pragma GCC diagnostic push
 #pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Warray-bounds"
 #pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wstringop-overflow"
 #endif
   SurfaceBoundsStub(const SurfaceBoundsStub& other) = default;
-#if defined(__GNUC__) && __GNUC__ == 13 && !defined(__clang__)
+#if defined(__GNUC__) && (__GNUC__ == 13 || __GNUC__ == 14) && \
+    !defined(__clang__)
 #pragma GCC diagnostic pop
 #endif
 
diff --git a/cmake/setup_withdeps.sh.in b/cmake/setup_withdeps.sh.in
index b4a17641134..ce1dc3506e7 100644
--- a/cmake/setup_withdeps.sh.in
+++ b/cmake/setup_withdeps.sh.in
@@ -51,6 +51,9 @@ if [[ -d "@Geant4_DIR@" ]]; then
 fi
 if [[ -d "@DD4hep_DIR@" ]]; then
   . @DD4hep_INCLUDE_DIRS@/../bin/thisdd4hep.sh
+  # Without this, DD4hep's Xerces-C XML parsing fails with:
+  # > Could not load a transcoding service
+  export LC_ALL=C
 fi
 if [[ -d "@podio_DIR@" ]]; then
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="@podio_LIBRARY_DIR@:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"