diff --git a/jenkins.sh b/jenkins.sh
index 258e358674..2bccf0f88c 100755
--- a/jenkins.sh
+++ b/jenkins.sh
@@ -13,8 +13,11 @@ npm install
 # apparently npm 3.10.3 on node 6.4.0 doesn't upgrade #develop target with npm install unless explicitly asked.
 npm install matrix-react-sdk matrix-js-sdk
 
-# install olm
-npm install ./olm/olm-*.tgz
+# install olm. A naive 'npm i ./olm/olm-*.tgz' fails because it uses the url
+# from our package.json (or even matrix-js-sdk's) in preference.
+tar -C olm -xz < olm/olm-*.tgz
+rm -r node_modules/olm
+cp -r olm/package node_modules/olm
 
 # we may be using a dev branch of react-sdk, in which case we need to build it
 (cd node_modules/matrix-react-sdk && npm run build)