diff --git a/containers/jug/setup_detectors.py b/containers/jug/setup_detectors.py
index f7ba8717b263bde253ce1e0bbcbe4252cc448920..ee0399f3bc3067ddd6f6d80b9a72fafadda49e5b 100755
--- a/containers/jug/setup_detectors.py
+++ b/containers/jug/setup_detectors.py
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
                     subprocess.check_call(' '.join(cmd), shell=True)
             ## build
             cxxflags = ''
-            if os.environ['CXXFLAGS']:
+            if 'CXXFLAGS' in os.environ:
                 cxxflags = os.environ['CXXFLAGS']
             if cfg.get('cxxflags'):
                 cxxflags = cfg['cxxflags']
diff --git a/eic-spack.sh b/eic-spack.sh
index d0f164b3c010ce1123afd121228f7c631538f454..18b1c2cc5b050bfd8509cae826ca50fad2557f75 100644
--- a/eic-spack.sh
+++ b/eic-spack.sh
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ EICSPACK_ORGREPO="eic/eic-spack"
 
 ## EIC spack github version, e.g. v0.19.7 or commit hash
 ## note: nightly builds will use e.g. releases/v0.19
-EICSPACK_VERSION="v0.20.12"
+EICSPACK_VERSION="dd4hep-1.26"
 
 ## Space-separated list of eic-spack cherry-picks
 read -r -d '' EICSPACK_CHERRYPICKS <<- \
diff --git a/spack-environment/packages.yaml b/spack-environment/packages.yaml
index 97eaeffbdbe0319a984bff383abb9d8473a4ff28..3e9daec216a175f09a861bced6d1fded4a4be1b3 100644
--- a/spack-environment/packages.yaml
+++ b/spack-environment/packages.yaml
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ packages:
     - '@1_54a'
   dd4hep:
     require:
-    - '@1.25.1'
+    - '@1.26'
     - +ddg4 +ddcad +hepmc3 +lcio +xercesc
   dpmjet:
     require: