diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index bb0e913..e31e17e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 All notable changes to `php-vips` will be documented in this file.
 
+## master
+
+- better ffi startup diagnostics [ping-localhost]
+
 ## 2.6.1 - 2025-12-10
 
 - suppress autodoc of `composite` and `DemandStyle` [jcupitt]
diff --git a/src/FFI.php b/src/FFI.php
index 722065d..70b948c 100644
--- a/src/FFI.php
+++ b/src/FFI.php
@@ -278,11 +278,13 @@ private static function init(): void
         }
 
         // detect the most common installation problems
-        if (!extension_loaded('ffi')) {
-            throw new Exception('FFI extension not loaded');
+        if (!extension_loaded("ffi")) {
+            throw new Exception("FFI extension not loaded");
         }
-        if (!ini_get('ffi.enable')) {
-            throw new Exception("ffi.enable not set to 'true'");
+        $enable = ini_get("ffi.enable");
+        if ($enable != "true" &&
+            $enable != "1") {
+            throw new Exception("ffi.enable set to '$enable', not 'true'");
         }
 
         $vips_libname = self::libraryName("libvips", 42);