diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/Base.java b/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
index aaa28162f..416cbedad 100644
--- a/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
+++ b/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
@@ -1534,12 +1534,12 @@ public class Base {
   
   
   static public String getAvrBasePath() {
-    if(Base.isLinux()) {
-      return ""; // avr tools are installed system-wide and in the path
-    } else {
-      return getHardwarePath() + File.separator + "tools" +
-             File.separator + "avr" + File.separator + "bin" + File.separator;
-    }  
+    String path = getHardwarePath() + File.separator + "tools" +
+                  File.separator + "avr" + File.separator + "bin" + File.separator;
+    if (Base.isLinux() && !(new File(path)).exists()) {
+      return "";  // use distribution provided avr tools if bundled tools missing
+    }
+    return path;
   }
   
   
diff --git a/build/build.xml b/build/build.xml
index 6a40d1b2c..52e7ac0cc 100644
--- a/build/build.xml
+++ b/build/build.xml
@@ -349,11 +349,24 @@
 
     <copy todir="linux/work" file="linux/dist/arduino" />
     <chmod perm="755" file="linux/work/arduino" />
+
+    <!-- Unzip AVR tools -->
+    <bunzip2 dest="linux" src="linux/avr_tools_linux32.tar.bz2" />
+    <exec executable="tar" dir="linux/work/hardware">
+      <arg value="-xvf"/>
+      <arg value="../../avr_tools_linux32.tar"/>
+    </exec>
   </target>
 
   <target name="linux64-build" depends="linux-build" description="Build linux (64-bit) version">
     <copy tofile="linux/work/hardware/tools/avrdude" file="linux/dist/tools/avrdude64" overwrite="true" />
     <copy tofile="linux/work/lib/librxtxSerial.so" file="linux/dist/lib/librxtxSerial64.so" overwrite="true" />
+    <!-- Unzip AVR tools -->
+    <bunzip2 dest="linux" src="linux/avr_tools_linux64.tar.bz2" />
+    <exec executable="tar" dir="linux/work/hardware">
+      <arg value="-xvf"/>
+      <arg value="../../avr_tools_linux64.tar"/>
+    </exec>
   </target>
   
   <target name="linux-run" depends="linux-build" 
diff --git a/build/linux/avr_tools_linux32.tar.bz2 b/build/linux/avr_tools_linux32.tar.bz2
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..28ed9d312
Binary files /dev/null and b/build/linux/avr_tools_linux32.tar.bz2 differ
diff --git a/build/linux/avr_tools_linux64.tar.bz2 b/build/linux/avr_tools_linux64.tar.bz2
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..44c7a8742
Binary files /dev/null and b/build/linux/avr_tools_linux64.tar.bz2 differ
diff --git a/build/shared/reference.zip b/build/shared/reference.zip
index e358bae39..055370381 100644
Binary files a/build/shared/reference.zip and b/build/shared/reference.zip differ