diff --git a/gnome-base/gnome-control-center/gnome-control-center-47.6.ebuild b/gnome-base/gnome-control-center/gnome-control-center-47.6.ebuild
index a4fb9fe394d08..9a9a88ee8b5e3 100644
--- a/gnome-base/gnome-control-center/gnome-control-center-47.6.ebuild
+++ b/gnome-base/gnome-control-center/gnome-control-center-47.6.ebuild
@@ -194,6 +194,8 @@ src_configure() {
 }
 
 src_test() {
+	# tests are fragile to long socket paths, bug #921583
+	local -x TMPDIR=/tmp
 	virtx meson_src_test
 }