diff --git a/.github/workflows/unittests.yml b/.github/workflows/unittests.yml
index 990150d..5c70e34 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/unittests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/unittests.yml
@@ -137,7 +137,6 @@ jobs:
           extra-packages: |
             any::rcmdcheck
             github::jasp-stats/jaspTools
-            cran::igraph
           needs: check
           cache-version: 2
 
@@ -151,6 +150,12 @@ jobs:
           jaspTools::setupJaspTools()
         shell: Rscript {0}
 
+      # so Rstudio's binary for igraph appears to be incompatible (i.e., crashes hard) with GitHub actions. Instead, we install igraph from source
+      - name: Make sure igraph is installed from source
+        if: runner.os == 'Linux' && inputs.needs_igraph
+        run: install.packages("igraph", type = "source", repos = "https://cloud.r-project.org/")
+        shell: Rscript {0}
+
       - name: Run unit tests
         run: source("tests/testthat.R")
         shell: Rscript {0}