diff -r 64d94b21e731 Lib/test/test_resource.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_resource.py	Tue Oct 22 07:30:24 2013 -0700
+++ b/Lib/test/test_resource.py	Tue Oct 22 21:08:53 2013 +0200
@@ -133,12 +133,18 @@
 
     @unittest.skipUnless(sys.platform == 'linux', 'test requires Linux')
     def test_linux_constants(self):
-        self.assertIsInstance(resource.RLIMIT_MSGQUEUE, int)
-        self.assertIsInstance(resource.RLIMIT_NICE, int)
-        self.assertIsInstance(resource.RLIMIT_RTPRIO, int)
-        self.assertIsInstance(resource.RLIMIT_RTTIME, int)
-        self.assertIsInstance(resource.RLIMIT_SIGPENDING, int)
-
+        versiontext = os.uname().release.split('-', 1)[0]
+        kver = tuple(int(v) for v in versiontext.split('.'))
+        if kver >= (2, 6, 8):
+            self.assertIsInstance(resource.RLIMIT_MSGQUEUE, int)
+        if kver >= (2, 6, 12):
+            self.assertIsInstance(resource.RLIMIT_NICE, int)
+        if kver >= (2, 6, 12):
+            self.assertIsInstance(resource.RLIMIT_RTPRIO, int)
+        if kver >= (2, 6, 25):
+            self.assertIsInstance(resource.RLIMIT_RTTIME, int)
+        if kver >= (2, 6, 8):
+            self.assertIsInstance(resource.RLIMIT_SIGPENDING, int)
 
     @unittest.skipUnless(hasattr(resource, 'prlimit'), 'no prlimit')
     def test_prlimit(self):