diff --git a/src/packages.jl b/src/packages.jl
index 312745fc4..2eb70bec7 100644
--- a/src/packages.jl
+++ b/src/packages.jl
@@ -243,7 +243,9 @@ function install(spec::String, version::String = "";
     # point PackageManager to the given pkg dir
     Globals.PKGMAN_CustomPackageDir = GapObj(pkgdir)
     mkpath(pkgdir)
-    Pidfile.mkpidlock("$pkgdir.lock") do
+    # pidlock timeout: 300 seconds = 5 minutes should suffice; about the
+    # slowest packages to install are Semigroups and NormalizInterface.
+    Pidfile.mkpidlock("$pkgdir.lock"; stale_age=300) do
       if quiet || debug
         oldlevel = Wrappers.InfoLevel(Globals.InfoPackageManager)
         Wrappers.SetInfoLevel(Globals.InfoPackageManager, quiet ? 0 : 3)
diff --git a/src/setup.jl b/src/setup.jl
index 8b829c125..38010bd89 100644
--- a/src/setup.jl
+++ b/src/setup.jl
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ function regenerate_gaproot()
 
     # create the mutable gaproot
     mkpath(gaproot_mutable)
-    Pidfile.mkpidlock("$gaproot_mutable.lock") do
+    Pidfile.mkpidlock("$gaproot_mutable.lock"; stale_age=10) do
         # create fake sysinfo.gap
         unquoted = Set(["GAParch", "GAP_ABI", "GAP_HPCGAP", "GAP_KERNEL_MAJOR_VERSION", "GAP_KERNEL_MINOR_VERSION", "GAP_OBJEXT"])
         open("$gaproot_mutable/sysinfo.gap", "w") do file