diff --git a/src/calibre/linux_installer.py b/src/calibre/linux_installer.py
index b433c36ffc..9415cb054a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/linux_installer.py
+++ b/src/calibre/linux_installer.py
@@ -216,7 +216,10 @@ cd $frozen_path
 
 def extract_tarball(tar, destdir):
     if hasattr(tar, 'read'):
-        tarfile.open(fileobj=tar, mode='r').extractall(destdir)
+        try:
+            tarfile.open(fileobj=tar, mode='r').extractall(destdir)
+        except: # tarfile.py on Fedora 9 is buggy
+            subprocess.check_call(['tar', 'xvjf', tar.name, destdir])
     else:
         tarfile.open(tar, 'r').extractall(destdir)