diff --git a/__tests__/commands/install/integration.js b/__tests__/commands/install/integration.js
index a7d88af412..48e5054561 100644
--- a/__tests__/commands/install/integration.js
+++ b/__tests__/commands/install/integration.js
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ async function mockConstants(base: Config, mocks: Object, cb: (config: Config) =
   // the Yarn environment.
 
   const opts = {};
-  
+
   opts.binLinks = base.binLinks;
   opts.cwd = base.cwd;
   opts.globalFolder = base.globalFolder;
diff --git a/__tests__/commands/pack.js b/__tests__/commands/pack.js
index 58608f7b74..845cbbe767 100644
--- a/__tests__/commands/pack.js
+++ b/__tests__/commands/pack.js
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ export async function getFilesFromArchive(source, destination): Promise<Array<st
         strip: 1,
         dmode: 0o555, // all dirs should be readable
         fmode: 0o444, // all files should be readable
+        chown: false, // don't chown. just leave as it is
       }))
       .on('finish', resolve)
       .on('error', reject);
diff --git a/circle.yml b/circle.yml
index 9add55974e..246b68f03a 100644
--- a/circle.yml
+++ b/circle.yml
@@ -34,6 +34,9 @@ test:
     - yarn build-dist
     - node ./scripts/build-webpack.js
     - ./scripts/build-deb.sh
+    # Test that installing as root works and that it also works
+    # behind a user namespace which Circle CI tests are run under
+    - sudo env "PATH=$PATH" bin/yarn install --force
 
 deployment:
   release:
diff --git a/src/fetchers/git-fetcher.js b/src/fetchers/git-fetcher.js
index 7e09d14c7c..a7f776dbd9 100644
--- a/src/fetchers/git-fetcher.js
+++ b/src/fetchers/git-fetcher.js
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ export default class GitFetcher extends BaseFetcher {
       const untarStream = tarFs.extract(this.dest, {
         dmode: 0o555, // all dirs should be readable
         fmode: 0o444, // all files should be readable
+        chown: false, // don't chown. just leave as it is
       });
 
       const hashStream = new crypto.HashStream();
diff --git a/src/fetchers/tarball-fetcher.js b/src/fetchers/tarball-fetcher.js
index 2633d45f9c..31af6cc133 100644
--- a/src/fetchers/tarball-fetcher.js
+++ b/src/fetchers/tarball-fetcher.js
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import * as constants from '../constants.js';
 import * as crypto from '../util/crypto.js';
 import BaseFetcher from './base-fetcher.js';
 import * as fsUtil from '../util/fs.js';
-import ROOT_USER from '../util/root-user.js';
 
 const invariant = require('invariant');
 const path = require('path');
@@ -82,17 +81,12 @@ export default class TarballFetcher extends BaseFetcher {
       strip: 1,
       dmode: 0o555, // all dirs should be readable
       fmode: 0o444, // all files should be readable
+      chown: false, // don't chown. just leave as it is
     });
 
     extractorStream
       .pipe(untarStream)
       .on('error', reject)
-      .on('entry', (entry: Object) => {
-        if (ROOT_USER) {
-          entry.props.uid = entry.uid = 0;
-          entry.props.gid = entry.gid = 0;
-        }
-      })
       .on('finish', () => {
         const expectHash = this.hash;
         const actualHash = validateStream.getHash();