diff --git a/linux_installer.py b/linux_installer.py
index e30e2bbeca..6a1acb40cd 100644
--- a/linux_installer.py
+++ b/linux_installer.py
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ for dirpath, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(plugdir):
 binaries += plugins
 
 manifest = '/tmp/manifest'
-open(manifest, 'wb').write('\\n'.join(executables))
+open(manifest, 'wb').write('\n'.join(executables))
 version = '/tmp/version'
 open(version, 'wb').write(__version__)
 coll = COLLECT(binaries, pyz, 
diff --git a/src/calibre/linux.py b/src/calibre/linux.py
index a7999050bb..d292f244ce 100644
--- a/src/calibre/linux.py
+++ b/src/calibre/linux.py
@@ -360,7 +360,14 @@ def install_man_pages(fatal_errors):
                     '--section', '1', '--no-info', '--include',
                     f.name, '--manual', __appname__)
         manfile = os.path.join(manpath, prog+'.1'+__appname__+'.bz2')
-        p = subprocess.Popen(help2man, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+        try:
+            p = subprocess.Popen(help2man, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+        except OSError, err:
+            import errno
+            if err.errno != errno.ENOENT:
+                raise
+            print 'Failed to install MAN pages as help2man is missing from your system'
+            break
         raw = re.compile(r'^\.IP\s*^([A-Z :]+)$', re.MULTILINE).sub(r'.SS\n\1', p.stdout.read())
         if not raw.strip():
             print 'Unable to create MAN page for', prog