diff --git a/contrib/fedora/REQUIRED_PACKAGES b/contrib/fedora/REQUIRED_PACKAGES
index 7579e9a983..b295d59315 100755
--- a/contrib/fedora/REQUIRED_PACKAGES
+++ b/contrib/fedora/REQUIRED_PACKAGES
@@ -10,16 +10,25 @@
 # Not all of these packages are strictly speaking necessary.
 # This is a generous list of related packages.
 
+set -xe
+
+DNF="$(which dnf &>/dev/null && echo dnf || echo yum)"
+
 install() {
     if [ "$NM_INSTALL" != "" ]; then
         $NM_INSTALL "$@"
     else
-        sudo "$(which dnf &>/dev/null && echo dnf || echo yum)" install -y "$@"
+        sudo "$DNF" install -y "$@"
     fi
 }
 
+install_ignore_missing() {
+    for p; do
+        install "$p" || :
+    done
+}
+
 install \
-    \
     ModemManager-devel \
     ModemManager-glib-devel \
     mobile-broadband-provider-info-devel \
@@ -56,7 +65,6 @@ install \
     ppp \
     ppp-devel \
     pygobject3-base \
-    python-gobject-base \
     python3-dbus \
     python3-gobject \
     qt-devel \
@@ -68,5 +76,9 @@ install \
     vala-tools \
     valgrind \
     wireless-tools-devel \
-    \
+    #end
+
+# some packages don't exist in certain distributions. Install them one-by-one, and ignore errors.
+install_ignore_missing \
+    python-gobject-base \
     #end