diff --git a/xwords4/dawg/English/BasEnglish2to8.xwd b/xwords4/dawg/English/BasEnglish2to8.xwd
index 038ef39b8..31703c91d 100644
Binary files a/xwords4/dawg/English/BasEnglish2to8.xwd and b/xwords4/dawg/English/BasEnglish2to8.xwd differ
diff --git a/xwords4/dawg/English/Makefile.BasEnglish b/xwords4/dawg/English/Makefile.BasEnglish
index fb44a33a2..e77b5e877 100644
--- a/xwords4/dawg/English/Makefile.BasEnglish
+++ b/xwords4/dawg/English/Makefile.BasEnglish
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 XWLANG=BasEnglish
 LANGCODE=en_US
 DICT2DAWGARGS = -r -nosort
+DICTNOTE = "Built on $(shell date)"
 
 TARGET_TYPE ?= WINCE
 
diff --git a/xwords4/dawg/Makefile.langcommon b/xwords4/dawg/Makefile.langcommon
index 44164230f..78f6a3baa 100644
--- a/xwords4/dawg/Makefile.langcommon
+++ b/xwords4/dawg/Makefile.langcommon
@@ -276,10 +276,17 @@ $(XWLANG)_charcount.bin: table.bin ../xloc.pl
 	cat $$TMP >> $@; \
 	rm -f $$TMP
 
-$(XWLANG)%_newheader.bin: $(XWLANG)%_wordcount.bin
-	SIZ=$$(ls -l $< | awk '{print $$5}'); \
+$(XWLANG)%_note.bin:
+	echo -n $(DICTNOTE) > $@
+	perl -e "print pack(\"c\",0)" >> $@
+
+$(XWLANG)%_newheader.bin: $(XWLANG)%_wordcount.bin $(XWLANG)%_note.bin
+	SIZ=0; \
+	for FILE in $+; do \
+		SIZ=$$(($$SIZ + $$(ls -l $$FILE | awk '{print $$5}'))); \
+	done; \
 	perl -e "print pack(\"n\",$$SIZ)" > $@
-	cat $< >> $@
+	cat $+ >> $@
 
 %.dict: %.dict.gz
 	zcat $< > $@
diff --git a/xwords4/linux/linuxdict.c b/xwords4/linux/linuxdict.c
index d6c25cf72..9ac6db234 100644
--- a/xwords4/linux/linuxdict.c
+++ b/xwords4/linux/linuxdict.c
@@ -290,13 +290,21 @@ initFromDictFile( LinuxDictionaryCtxt* dctx, const char* fileName )
             memcpy( &headerLen, ptr, sizeof(headerLen) );
             ptr += sizeof(headerLen);
             headerLen = ntohs( headerLen );
-            if ( headerLen != sizeof(wordCount) ) { /* the only case we know right now */
-                goto closeAndExit;
-            }
+
             memcpy( &wordCount, ptr, sizeof(wordCount) );
             ptr += sizeof(wordCount);
+            headerLen -= sizeof(wordCount);
             dctx->super.nWords = ntohl( wordCount );
             XP_DEBUGF( "dict contains %ld words", dctx->super.nWords );
+
+            if ( 0 < headerLen ) {
+                XP_UCHAR buf[headerLen];
+                XP_MEMCPY( buf, ptr, headerLen );
+                XP_LOGF( "%s: got note of len %d: \"%s\"", __func__, headerLen-1, buf );
+            } else {
+                XP_LOGF( "%s: no note", __func__ );
+            }
+            ptr += headerLen;
         }
 
         if ( isUTF8 ) {