diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 2677196da..0f01e7420 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -148,6 +148,16 @@ find_package(IBVerbs)
 find_package(NUMA REQUIRED)
 find_package(Threads REQUIRED)
 
+set(CMAKE_COLOR_DIAGNOSTICS ON)
+function(msg_red text)
+  string(ASCII 27 ESC)
+  message("${ESC}[31m${text}${ESC}[0m")
+endfunction()
+
+if(NOT IBVERBS_FOUND)
+  msg_red("libibverbs not found. Install libibverbs-dev or rdma-core-devel.")
+endif()
+
 include(FetchContent)
 FetchContent_Declare(json URL https://github.com/nlohmann/json/releases/download/v3.11.3/json.tar.xz)
 FetchContent_MakeAvailable(json)
diff --git a/src/include/ibverbs_wrapper.hpp b/src/include/ibverbs_wrapper.hpp
index c5593344b..0ae9267db 100644
--- a/src/include/ibverbs_wrapper.hpp
+++ b/src/include/ibverbs_wrapper.hpp
@@ -17,7 +17,18 @@ struct IBVerbs {
   // Static method to initialize the library
   static void initialize() {
     initialized = true;
-    handle = dlopen("libibverbs.so", RTLD_NOW);
+
+    // Try different versions of libibverbs
+    const char* lib_possible_names[] = {
+        "libibverbs.so",
+        "libibverbs.so.1",
+    };
+    for (int i = 0; lib_possible_names[i] != nullptr; i++) {
+      handle = dlopen(lib_possible_names[i], RTLD_NOW);
+      if (handle) {
+        break;
+      }
+    }
     if (!handle) {
       throw mscclpp::IbError("Failed to load libibverbs: " + std::string(dlerror()), errno);
     }