diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 6ce59c1d8a..22e3f9cd7a 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -19,6 +19,12 @@ $ pipx install --suffix=@next 'tmuxp' --pip-args '\--pre' --force
 
 <!-- Maintainers, insert changes / features for the next release here -->
 
+### Development
+
+- libtmux: Bump minimum version from 0.40.1 -> 0.42.0 (#958)
+
+  - `run_before_script()`: Remove reliance on `console_to_str()`
+
 ## tmuxp 1.51.0 (2025-02-02)
 
 _Maintenance only, no bug fixes or new features_
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 088692aade..d4267b3528 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ include = [
   { path = "conftest.py", format = "sdist" },
 ]
 dependencies = [
-  "libtmux~=0.40.1",
+  "libtmux~=0.42.0",
   "colorama>=0.3.9",
   "PyYAML>=6.0"
 ]
diff --git a/src/tmuxp/util.py b/src/tmuxp/util.py
index b81fdb6e7e..893b73d379 100644
--- a/src/tmuxp/util.py
+++ b/src/tmuxp/util.py
@@ -9,8 +9,6 @@
 import sys
 import typing as t
 
-from libtmux._compat import console_to_str
-
 from . import exc
 
 if t.TYPE_CHECKING:
@@ -37,16 +35,19 @@ def run_before_script(
             stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
             stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
             cwd=cwd,
+            text=True,
+            errors="backslashreplace",
+            encoding="utf-8",
         )
         if proc.stdout is not None:
-            for line in iter(proc.stdout.readline, b""):
-                sys.stdout.write(console_to_str(line))
+            for line in iter(proc.stdout.readline, ""):
+                sys.stdout.write(line)
         proc.wait()
 
         if proc.returncode and proc.stderr is not None:
             stderr = proc.stderr.read()
             proc.stderr.close()
-            stderr_strlist = console_to_str(stderr).split("\n")
+            stderr_strlist = stderr.split("\n")
             stderr_str = "\n".join(list(filter(None, stderr_strlist)))  # filter empty
 
             raise exc.BeforeLoadScriptError(
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index ffb5fd2cc2..94e8574413 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -375,11 +375,11 @@ wheels = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "libtmux"
-version = "0.40.1"
+version = "0.42.0"
 source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
-sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/20/53/d30bf462b0a005e4541b1c217e15107970063aad99145a259d75b23d35bd/libtmux-0.40.1.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:98ffe2b4922449e89dcd0072e1852bcd5757944fd34159d70ed3e57df398796d", size = 318731 }
+sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/ea/79/630e2b1b271e59cc17988f9b5473ea17850555b7734f6df25be16f0bd6a2/libtmux-0.42.0.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:5a13bc98d85fdb7105eea880d8f7017c8c4cca6563485972dd4550c57b66ee6f", size = 318619 }
 wheels = [
-    { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/92/89/179a35a1f0964466bdeb8db2b3b071780693490abd10d28e151b51088747/libtmux-0.40.1-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:aa8bd4a052ed6ce2686f46fa884022d79e900321b17428e87cc5d1b91fcb6081", size = 56185 },
+    { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/51/6e/6c5e6512927b8ecc2d236dbe6ac9b756717869e80a5994ca3dcbc25f3403/libtmux-0.42.0-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:bd3ab89d4fae9422d4e1f2701383d147aff61fe630a001ccfa7fdd9a69c7972f", size = 56057 },
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -1241,7 +1241,7 @@ testing = [
 [package.metadata]
 requires-dist = [
     { name = "colorama", specifier = ">=0.3.9" },
-    { name = "libtmux", specifier = "~=0.40.1" },
+    { name = "libtmux", specifier = "~=0.42.0" },
     { name = "pyyaml", specifier = ">=6.0" },
 ]