diff --git a/src/libstore/filetransfer.cc b/src/libstore/filetransfer.cc
index e28dd43ec..a54ebdcf3 100644
--- a/src/libstore/filetransfer.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/filetransfer.cc
@@ -581,7 +581,7 @@ struct curlFileTransfer : public FileTransfer
 
         #if __linux__
         try {
-            unshareFilesystem();
+            tryUnshareFilesystem();
         } catch (nix::Error & e) {
             e.addTrace({}, "in download thread");
             throw;
diff --git a/src/libutil/linux/namespaces.cc b/src/libutil/linux/namespaces.cc
index cb7a0d6e7..d4766cbba 100644
--- a/src/libutil/linux/namespaces.cc
+++ b/src/libutil/linux/namespaces.cc
@@ -137,9 +137,9 @@ void restoreMountNamespace()
     }
 }
 
-void unshareFilesystem()
+void tryUnshareFilesystem()
 {
-    if (unshare(CLONE_FS) != 0 && errno != EPERM)
+    if (unshare(CLONE_FS) != 0 && errno != EPERM && errno != ENOSYS)
         throw SysError("unsharing filesystem state");
 }
 
diff --git a/src/libutil/linux/namespaces.hh b/src/libutil/linux/namespaces.hh
index ef3c9123f..208920b80 100644
--- a/src/libutil/linux/namespaces.hh
+++ b/src/libutil/linux/namespaces.hh
@@ -20,11 +20,13 @@ void saveMountNamespace();
 void restoreMountNamespace();
 
 /**
- * Cause this thread to not share any FS attributes with the main
+ * Cause this thread to try to not share any FS attributes with the main
  * thread, because this causes setns() in restoreMountNamespace() to
  * fail.
+ *
+ * This is best effort -- EPERM and ENOSYS failures are just ignored.
  */
-void unshareFilesystem();
+void tryUnshareFilesystem();
 
 bool userNamespacesSupported();