diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 7eabd06..9b73333 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -7,3 +7,5 @@ notifications:
   recipients:
     - cowboyd@thefrontside.net
     - bordjukov@gmail.com
+before_install:
+  - sudo apt-get install git-svn
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index fad8dc1..91c7a0e 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -9,19 +9,15 @@ end
 require 'rspec/core/rake_task'
 RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:spec)
 
-V8_Version = Libv8::VERSION.gsub(/\.\d+$/,'')
-V8_Source = File.expand_path '../vendor/v8', __FILE__
-
 require File.expand_path '../ext/libv8/make.rb', __FILE__
+require File.expand_path '../ext/libv8/checkout.rb', __FILE__
 include Libv8::Make
+include Libv8::Checkout
 
 desc "setup the vendored v8 source to correspond to the libv8 gem version"
 task :checkout do
   sh "git submodule update --init"
-  Dir.chdir(V8_Source) do
-    sh "git fetch"
-    sh "git checkout #{V8_Version} -f"
-  end
+  checkout!
 end
 
 desc "compile v8 via the ruby extension mechanism"
@@ -29,7 +25,6 @@ task :compile do
   sh "ruby ext/libv8/extconf.rb"
 end
 
-
 desc "manually invoke the GYP compile. Useful for seeing debug output"
 task :manual_compile do
   require File.expand_path '../ext/libv8/arch.rb', __FILE__
@@ -79,6 +74,7 @@ task :clean do
   sh "rm -rf pkg"
   sh "git clean -df"
   sh "cd #{V8_Source} && git checkout -f && git clean -dxf"
+  sh "cd #{GYP_Source} && git checkout -f && git clean -dxf"
 end
 
 desc "build a binary on heroku (you must have vulcan configured for this)"
diff --git a/ext/libv8/builder.rb b/ext/libv8/builder.rb
index 13c42d3..13ce6d6 100644
--- a/ext/libv8/builder.rb
+++ b/ext/libv8/builder.rb
@@ -2,12 +2,14 @@ require 'mkmf'
 require File.expand_path '../compiler', __FILE__
 require File.expand_path '../arch', __FILE__
 require File.expand_path '../make', __FILE__
+require File.expand_path '../checkout', __FILE__
 
 module Libv8
   class Builder
     include Libv8::Arch
     include Libv8::Compiler
     include Libv8::Make
+    include Libv8::Checkout
 
     def make_flags(*flags)
       profile = enable_config('debug') ? 'debug' : 'release'
@@ -32,7 +34,8 @@ module Libv8
     end
 
     def build_libv8!
-      Dir.chdir(File.expand_path '../../../vendor/v8', __FILE__) do
+      Dir.chdir(V8_Source) do
+        checkout!
         setup_python!
         setup_build_deps!
         apply_patches!
@@ -60,7 +63,7 @@ module Libv8
       # This uses the Git mirror of the svn repository used by
       # "make dependencies", instead of calling that make target
       `rm -rf build/gyp`
-      `ln -fs #{File.expand_path '../../../vendor/gyp', __FILE__} build/gyp`
+      `ln -fs #{GYP_Source} build/gyp`
     end
 
     def apply_patches!
diff --git a/ext/libv8/checkout.rb b/ext/libv8/checkout.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..56a27df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ext/libv8/checkout.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+module Libv8
+  module Checkout
+    module_function
+
+    GYP_SVN = 'http://gyp.googlecode.com/svn'
+    V8_Source = File.expand_path '../../../vendor/v8', __FILE__
+    GYP_Source = File.expand_path '../../../vendor/gyp', __FILE__
+
+    def checkout!
+      # When compiling from a source gem, it's not a git repository anymore and
+      # we assume the right code is already checked out.
+      return unless git?(V8_Source)
+
+      Dir.chdir(V8_Source) do
+        `git fetch`
+        `git checkout #{Libv8::VERSION.gsub(/\.\d+$/,'')} -f`
+      end
+
+      return unless git?(GYP_Source)
+
+      check_git_svn!
+
+      Dir.chdir(GYP_Source) do
+        mkf = File.readlines(File.join(V8_Source, 'Makefile'))
+        idx = mkf.index {|l| l =~ /#{GYP_SVN}/} + 1
+        rev = /--revision (\d+)/.match(mkf[idx])[1]
+        `git fetch`
+        # --git-dir is needed for older versions of git and git-svn
+        `git --git-dir=../../.git/modules/vendor/gyp/ svn init #{GYP_SVN} -Ttrunk`
+        `git config --replace-all svn-remote.svn.fetch trunk:refs/remotes/origin/master`
+        `git checkout $(git --git-dir=../../.git/modules/vendor/gyp/ svn find-rev r#{rev} | tail -n 1) -f`
+      end
+    end
+
+    def git?(dir)
+      File.exists?(File.join(dir, '.git'))
+    end
+
+    def check_git_svn!
+      unless system 'git help svn 2>&1 > /dev/null'
+        fail "git-svn not installed!\nPlease install git-svn."
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/vendor/gyp b/vendor/gyp
index 878ee28..f7bc250 160000
--- a/vendor/gyp
+++ b/vendor/gyp
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 878ee285239e5777028c31d6b9d10fbc930ccda2
+Subproject commit f7bc250ccc4d619a1cf238db87e5979f89ff36d7