diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index 4850d09dc8..62e290ae54 100755
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ pushd "$SCRIPT_DIR"  >/dev/null
 set -e
 set -x
 
-MIN_GCC_VERSION=6.0.0
+MIN_GCC_VERSION=8.0.0
 gccBuild=false
 function version_less_than_equal_to() { test "$(printf '%s\n' "$@" | sort -V | head -n 1)" = "$1"; }
 
@@ -55,8 +55,8 @@ if $gccBuild; then
     fi
 
     if version_less_than_equal_to $gcc_ver $MIN_GCC_VERSION; then
-        export CC="gcc-6"
-        export CXX="g++-6"
+        export CC="gcc-8"
+        export CXX="g++-8"
     else
         export CC="gcc"
         export CXX="g++"
diff --git a/clean.sh b/clean.sh
index 136d670e68..42713ba829 100755
--- a/clean.sh
+++ b/clean.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ set -e
 set +x
 
 rm -rf build_debug
-rm -rf build_release
+rm -rf build_gcc_debug
 rm -rf cmake/output
 
-popd >/dev/null
\ No newline at end of file
+popd >/dev/null
diff --git a/cmake/cmake-modules/CommonSetup.cmake b/cmake/cmake-modules/CommonSetup.cmake
index c2c924c260..ef48dc3fb4 100644
--- a/cmake/cmake-modules/CommonSetup.cmake
+++ b/cmake/cmake-modules/CommonSetup.cmake
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ macro(CommonSetup)
             set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -D__CLANG__")
         else ()
             set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "\
-                -std=c++17 -stdlib=libc++ -ggdb -Wall -Wextra -Wstrict-aliasing -Wunreachable-code -Wcast-qual -Wctor-dtor-privacy \
+                -std=c++17 -ggdb -Wall -Wextra -Wstrict-aliasing -Wunreachable-code -Wcast-qual -Wctor-dtor-privacy \
                 -Wdisabled-optimization -Wformat=2 -Winit-self -Wmissing-include-dirs -Wswitch-default \
                 -Wold-style-cast -Woverloaded-virtual -Wredundant-decls -Wshadow -Wstrict-overflow=5 -Wswitch-default -Wundef \
                 -Wno-variadic-macros -Wno-parentheses -Wno-unused-function -Wno-unused -Wno-documentation -fdiagnostics-show-option \
@@ -63,9 +63,14 @@ macro(CommonSetup)
                 ${RPC_LIB_DEFINES} ${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS}")
 
             if (${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID} MATCHES "Clang")
+                # libc++ is a Clang-only option
+                set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-stdlib=libc++ ${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS}")
                 set(CXX_EXP_LIB "-lc++fs -ferror-limit=10")
-            else()
-                set(CXX_EXP_LIB "-lstdc++fs -fmax-errors=10 -Wnoexcept -Wstrict-null-sentinel")
+            else() # gcc
+                set(CXX_EXP_LIB "-nostdinc++ -I/usr/include/c++/8 -I/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/c++/8 -nodefaultlibs 
+                    -l/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc++.so -l/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc++abi.so
+                    -lm -lc -lgcc_s -lgcc  
+                    -lstdc++fs -fmax-errors=10 -Wnoexcept -Wstrict-null-sentinel")
             endif ()
         endif ()
 
diff --git a/setup.sh b/setup.sh
index 5d05a5998a..8f2b65ca3d 100755
--- a/setup.sh
+++ b/setup.sh
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ pushd "$SCRIPT_DIR" >/dev/null
 downloadHighPolySuv=true
 gccBuild=false
 MIN_CMAKE_VERSION=3.10.0
-MIN_GCC_VERSION=6.0.0
+MIN_GCC_VERSION=8.0.0
 function version_less_than_equal_to() { test "$(printf '%s\n' "$@" | sort -V | head -n 1)" = "$1"; }
 
 # Parse command line arguments
@@ -39,11 +39,11 @@ if $gccBuild; then
     if version_less_than_equal_to $gcc_ver $MIN_GCC_VERSION; then
         if [ "$(uname)" == "Darwin" ]; then # osx
             brew update
-            brew install gcc-6 g++-6
+            brew install gcc-8 g++-8
         else
             sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
             sudo apt-get -y update
-            sudo apt-get install -y gcc-6 g++-6
+            sudo apt-get install -y gcc-8 g++-8 gcc-8-multilib g++-8-multilib
         fi
     else
         echo "Already have good version of gcc: $gcc_ver"