diff -Nru gradle-1.0/subprojects/core/src/main/groovy/org/gradle/api/internal/classpath/DefaultModuleRegistry.java gradle-1.0-gil/subprojects/core/src/main/groovy/org/gradle/api/internal/classpath/DefaultModuleRegistry.java
--- gradle-1.0/subprojects/core/src/main/groovy/org/gradle/api/internal/classpath/DefaultModuleRegistry.java	2012-04-25 01:27:12.000000000 +0200
+++ gradle-1.0-gil/subprojects/core/src/main/groovy/org/gradle/api/internal/classpath/DefaultModuleRegistry.java	2012-09-21 20:58:06.219892254 +0200
@@ -73,6 +73,10 @@
 
     private static File findDistDir() {
         File codeSource = ClasspathUtil.getClasspathForClass(DefaultModuleRegistry.class);
+
+        if (codeSource.getAbsolutePath().startsWith("/usr/share/java/gradle"))
+            return new File("/usr/share/gradle");
+
         if (codeSource.isFile()) {
             // Loaded from a JAR - let's see if its in the lib directory, and there's a lib/plugins directory
             File libDir = codeSource.getParentFile();