diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py
index f512ebc0a0..64179d4004 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import shutil
 import tempfile
 import glob
 import fnmatch
+import unittest
 
 from oeqa.selftest.case import OESelftestTestCase
 from oeqa.utils.commands import runCmd, bitbake, get_bb_var, create_temp_layer
@@ -38,6 +39,13 @@ def setUpModule():
             canonical_layerpath = os.path.realpath(canonical_layerpath) + '/'
             edited_layers.append(layerpath)
             oldmetapath = os.path.realpath(layerpath)
+
+            # when downloading poky from tar.gz some tests will be skipped (BUG 12389)
+            try:
+                runCmd('git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree', cwd=canonical_layerpath)
+            except:
+                raise unittest.SkipTest("devtool tests require folder to be a git repo")
+
             result = runCmd('git rev-parse --show-toplevel', cwd=canonical_layerpath)
             oldreporoot = result.output.rstrip()
             newmetapath = os.path.join(corecopydir, os.path.relpath(oldmetapath, oldreporoot))