diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index ad91e01..5c0f03c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -180,6 +180,11 @@ jobs:
           ls -la dist/chimpstackr/
           echo "=== Testing CLI ==="
           dist/chimpstackr/chimpstackr-cli --help || true
+          # Host GLib/GTK/libstdc++ must come from the user's system (issue #179)
+          if ls dist/chimpstackr/_internal | grep -E '^lib(glib-2\.0|gio-2\.0|gtk-3|stdc\+\+)\.so'; then
+            echo "::error::Build host system libs were bundled, see chimpstackr.spec"
+            exit 1
+          fi
 
       - name: Create AppImage
         run: |
diff --git a/chimpstackr.spec b/chimpstackr.spec
index 3f99d94..5f63b8e 100644
--- a/chimpstackr.spec
+++ b/chimpstackr.spec
@@ -113,6 +113,43 @@ a_cli = Analysis(
     noarchive=False,
 )
 
+# ── Linux: use the user's desktop stack, don't bundle the build host's ──
+# PyInstaller picks these up from the build machine (ubuntu-24.04). At runtime the
+# user's own GIO/GVfs modules, GTK input methods, pixbuf loaders and Mesa drivers
+# get loaded into the app and need the user's matching versions of these libs.
+# Bundling older copies shadows them and crashes newer distros (issue #179:
+# Ubuntu 26.04 GVfs needs g_variant_builder_init_static from GLib 2.84+).
+# Wheel-vendored libs have hashed names (e.g. libxcb-ad31f5a3.so) and are kept.
+if sys.platform.startswith('linux'):
+    import re
+    _system_libs = re.compile(r'^lib(' + '|'.join([
+        # GLib / GTK3 stack (loaded by Qt's gtk3 platform theme). libgthread
+        # stays bundled: Qt needs it, it's an empty stub, and openSUSE omits it.
+        # libbz2 too: Fedora names it libbz2.so.1, Python's _bz2 wants .so.1.0.
+        'glib-2.0', 'gio-2.0', 'gobject-2.0', 'gmodule-2.0',
+        'gtk-3', 'gdk-3', 'gdk_pixbuf-2.0', 'atk-1.0', 'atk-bridge-2.0', 'atspi',
+        'pango-1.0', 'pangocairo-1.0', 'pangoft2-1.0', 'cairo', 'cairo-gobject',
+        'harfbuzz', 'fribidi', 'thai', 'datrie', 'graphite2', 'pixman-1', 'epoxy',
+        'fontconfig', 'freetype', 'png16', 'brotlicommon', 'brotlidec', 'expat',
+        'ffi', 'pcre2-8', 'mount', 'blkid', 'selinux', 'z', 'zstd',
+        # X11 / xcb (shared with the system's Mesa libGL)
+        'X11', 'X11-xcb', 'Xau', 'Xdmcp', 'Xext', 'Xfixes', 'Xi', 'Xinerama',
+        'Xrandr', 'Xrender', 'Xcursor', 'Xcomposite', 'Xdamage', 'xkbcommon',
+        'xcb-glx', 'xcb-randr', 'xcb-render', 'xcb-shm', 'xcb-sync', 'xcb-xfixes',
+        # D-Bus, systemd, crypto and Kerberos (deps of the system's GVfs modules)
+        'dbus-1', 'systemd', 'gcrypt', 'gpg-error', 'bsd', 'md', 'ssl', 'crypto',
+        'gssapi_krb5', 'krb5', 'krb5support', 'k5crypto', 'com_err', 'keyutils',
+        'cap', 'lz4', 'lzma', 'uuid',
+        # Toolchain runtime (Mesa's LLVM needs the system's newer libstdc++)
+        'stdc\\+\\+', 'gcc_s',
+    ]) + r')\.so(\.|$)')
+
+    def _drop_system_libs(toc):
+        return [e for e in toc if not _system_libs.match(os.path.basename(e[0]))]
+
+    a.binaries = _drop_system_libs(a.binaries)
+    a_cli.binaries = _drop_system_libs(a_cli.binaries)
+
 # Merge analyses so shared libs are only collected once
 MERGE(
     (a, 'chimpstackr', 'chimpstackr'),
diff --git a/src/cli.py b/src/cli.py
index d973e5c..2022694 100644
--- a/src/cli.py
+++ b/src/cli.py
@@ -7,6 +7,13 @@
         python -m src.cli --input img1.jpg img2.jpg img3.jpg --output stacked.png --align
 """
 import os
+import multiprocessing
+
+# Frozen builds: let multiprocessing helpers that re-run this executable exit
+# instead of running the CLI (see src/run.py)
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    multiprocessing.freeze_support()
+
 os.environ.setdefault('OPENCV_IO_ENABLE_OPENEXR', '1')
 
 import argparse
diff --git a/src/run.py b/src/run.py
index f6e8c02..07aa00a 100644
--- a/src/run.py
+++ b/src/run.py
@@ -1,4 +1,10 @@
-import os, sys, tempfile, logging
+import os, sys, tempfile, logging, multiprocessing
+
+# Frozen builds: multiprocessing helpers (e.g. the resource tracker Python 3.14
+# starts for numba's parallel lock) re-run this executable. Let them do their
+# job and exit instead of opening another copy of the app (issue #179).
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    multiprocessing.freeze_support()
 
 # Enable OpenEXR support in OpenCV (must be set before cv2 import)
 os.environ.setdefault('OPENCV_IO_ENABLE_OPENEXR', '1')