diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
index dbbb0324d144..4293e0112991 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
@@ -15,7 +15,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   doCheck = true;
 
-  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+  /* The build failed with a missing libranlib.la in hydra,
+     but worked on my computer. I think they have concurrency problems */
+  enableParallelBuilding = false;
 
   configureFlags = [ "--enable-readline" "--enable-dl" ];