diff --git a/src/backends/pyplot.jl b/src/backends/pyplot.jl
index 84ea6718..c02a512f 100644
--- a/src/backends/pyplot.jl
+++ b/src/backends/pyplot.jl
@@ -55,6 +55,10 @@ function add_backend_string(::PyPlotBackend)
     withenv("PYTHON" => "") do
         Pkg.build("PyPlot")
     end
+    import Conda
+    Conda.add("qt=4.8.5")
+
+    # now restart julia!
     """
 end
 
@@ -81,7 +85,17 @@ function _initialize_backend(::PyPlotBackend)
         const pycollections = PyPlot.pywrap(PyPlot.pyimport("matplotlib.collections"))
         const pyart3d = PyPlot.pywrap(PyPlot.pyimport("mpl_toolkits.mplot3d.art3d"))
     end
-
+    if is_linux()
+      @eval begin
+        # avoid Conda update that causes Segfault with qt >=4.8.6 on Ubuntu https://github.com/JuliaPy/PyPlot.jl/issues/234
+        import Conda
+        kw = Conda._installed_packages_dict()
+        if (!haskey(kw,"qt") || (qt_version=get(kw,"qt",0)[1]!=v"4.8.5"))
+          print("\n If the code has a Segmentation fault error switch to qt v4.8.5 by pasting the following code into julia: \n \n")
+          add_backend_string(backend())
+        end
+      end
+    end
     # we don't want every command to update the figure
     PyPlot.ioff()
 end