diff --git a/examples/simple_example.nim b/examples/simple_example.nim
index f571942..699d806 100644
--- a/examples/simple_example.nim
+++ b/examples/simple_example.nim
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@ proc main() =
   # get RocksDB to perform well
   let cpus = countProcessors()
   rocksdb_options_increase_parallelism(options, cpus.int32)
-  rocksdb_options_optimize_level_style_compaction(options, 0);
+  # This requires snappy - disabled because rocksdb is not always compiled with
+  # snappy support (for example Fedora 28, certain Ubuntu versions)
+  # rocksdb_options_optimize_level_style_compaction(options, 0);
   # create the DB if it's not already present
   rocksdb_options_set_create_if_missing(options, 1);
 
diff --git a/rocksdb.nim b/rocksdb.nim
index d85314a..8aa4b53 100644
--- a/rocksdb.nim
+++ b/rocksdb.nim
@@ -103,7 +103,9 @@ proc init*(rocks: var RocksDBInstance,
 
   # Optimize RocksDB. This is the easiest way to get RocksDB to perform well:
   rocksdb_options_increase_parallelism(rocks.options, cpus.int32)
-  rocksdb_options_optimize_level_style_compaction(rocks.options, 0)
+  # This requires snappy - disabled because rocksdb is not always compiled with
+  # snappy support (for example Fedora 28, certain Ubuntu versions)
+  # rocksdb_options_optimize_level_style_compaction(options, 0);
   rocksdb_options_set_create_if_missing(rocks.options, uint8(createIfMissing))
 
   var errors: cstring
diff --git a/tests/test_rocksdb_c.nim b/tests/test_rocksdb_c.nim
index d21869f..308a7c2 100644
--- a/tests/test_rocksdb_c.nim
+++ b/tests/test_rocksdb_c.nim
@@ -23,7 +23,9 @@ suite "RocksDB C wrapper tests":
 
     let cpus = countProcessors()
     rocksdb_options_increase_parallelism(options, cpus.int32)
-    rocksdb_options_optimize_level_style_compaction(options, 0);
+    # This requires snappy - disabled because rocksdb is not always compiled with
+    # snappy support (for example Fedora 28, certain Ubuntu versions)
+    # rocksdb_options_optimize_level_style_compaction(options, 0);
     # create the DB if it's not already present
     rocksdb_options_set_create_if_missing(options, 1);