diff -r 3f81e04c43fe Lib/test/test_gdb.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_gdb.py	Wed Jan 04 12:43:15 2012 +0000
+++ b/Lib/test/test_gdb.py	Wed Jan 04 16:51:11 2012 +0000
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import re
 import subprocess
 import sys
+import sysconfig
 import unittest
 import locale
 
@@ -24,6 +25,9 @@
     raise unittest.SkipTest("gdb versions before 7.0 didn't support python embedding"
                             " Saw:\n" + gdb_version.decode('ascii', 'replace'))
 
+if not sysconfig.is_python_build():
+    raise unittest.SkipTest("test_gdb only works on source builds at the moment.")
+
 # Verify that "gdb" was built with the embedded python support enabled:
 cmd = "--eval-command=python import sys; print sys.version_info"
 p = subprocess.Popen(["gdb", "--batch", cmd],