diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 5c8994385..bd2a79b93 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -290,6 +290,7 @@ endif
 # some memory allocation are available on Linux through GNU extensions in libc
 ifeq ($(UNAME_S),Linux)
 	MK_CPPFLAGS += -D_GNU_SOURCE
+	MK_LDFLAGS  += -ldl
 endif
 
 # RLIMIT_MEMLOCK came in BSD, is not specified in POSIX.1,
diff --git a/ggml/src/CMakeLists.txt b/ggml/src/CMakeLists.txt
index c506a413d..8cf2640fa 100644
--- a/ggml/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/ggml/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -230,6 +230,10 @@ add_library(ggml
 
 target_link_libraries(ggml PUBLIC ggml-base)
 
+if (CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME MATCHES "Linux")
+    target_link_libraries(ggml PRIVATE dl)
+endif()
+
 function(ggml_add_backend backend)
     string(TOUPPER "GGML_${backend}" backend_id)
     if (${backend_id})
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-backend-reg.cpp b/ggml/src/ggml-backend-reg.cpp
index 78096af18..742b860bd 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-backend-reg.cpp
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-backend-reg.cpp
@@ -250,9 +250,14 @@ ggml_backend_reg_t ggml_backend_load(const char * path) {
     ggml_backend_reg_t reg = backend_init();
     if (!reg) {
         GGML_LOG_ERROR("%s: failed to initialize backend from %s\n", __func__, path);
+#ifdef _WIN32
+        FreeLibrary(handle);
+#else
         dlclose(handle);
+#endif
         return nullptr;
     }
+
     GGML_LOG_DEBUG("%s: loaded %s backend from %s\n", __func__, ggml_backend_reg_name(reg), path);
     get_reg().register_backend(reg, handle);
     return reg;