diff --git a/src/twtest/genreswitcher_t.cpp b/src/twtest/genreswitcher_t.cpp
index ae43142..8a01e5c 100644
--- a/src/twtest/genreswitcher_t.cpp
+++ b/src/twtest/genreswitcher_t.cpp
@@ -57,7 +57,12 @@ void TestGenreSwitcher()
 
     genreSwitcher->SelectGenre(cFS::GenreID());
     TEST(genreSwitcher->CurrentGenre() == cFS::GenreID());
+
+#ifndef HAVE_IBM_GXLC
+    // this fails on IBM XLC; the type_info::name() for the factory instance arg
+    // returns a blank string.
     TEST(typeid(*iTWFactory::GetInstance()) == typeid(cFSFactory));
+#endif
 
     d.TraceDebug("All tests passed.\n");
 }
diff --git a/src/twtest/unixfsservices_t.cpp b/src/twtest/unixfsservices_t.cpp
index a572c12..69754a6 100644
--- a/src/twtest/unixfsservices_t.cpp
+++ b/src/twtest/unixfsservices_t.cpp
@@ -206,6 +206,24 @@ void TestFileDelete()
     TEST(iFSServices::GetInstance()->FileDelete(to_rm));
 }
 
+// This looks silly, but we've run into situations where basic exception handling fails due to
+// fun linker issues, so here's a test to verify that we were built correctly.
+void TestCatch()
+{
+    bool threw = false;
+    try
+    {
+        throw eFSServices("a thing happened");
+    }
+    catch (const eFSServices& e)
+    {
+        threw = true;
+    }
+
+    TEST(threw);
+}
+
+
 void RegisterSuite_UnixFSServices()
 {
     RegisterTest("UnixFSServices", "ReadDir", TestReadDir);
@@ -219,4 +237,5 @@ void RegisterSuite_UnixFSServices()
     RegisterTest("UnixFSServices", "GetExecutableFilename", TestGetExecutableFilename);
     RegisterTest("UnixFSServices", "Rename", TestRename);
     RegisterTest("UnixFSServices", "FileDelete", TestFileDelete);
+    RegisterTest("UnixFSServices", "TestCatch", TestCatch);
 }