diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
index 06a98e4..e0feffe 100755
--- a/install.sh
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -193,6 +193,19 @@ do_install() {
 activate_hooks() {
     [[ -d "${SCRIPT_DIR}/hooks" ]] || return 0
 
+    # Hooks are for clones you COMMIT from. A vendored copy (pi-devbox bakes
+    # this repo root-owned under /opt and runs install.sh as an unprivileged
+    # user on every boot) is not one: git refuses the repo as "dubious
+    # ownership", `config --local` fails, and the unguarded `git config` below
+    # then aborted the whole installer under set -e -- one WARN per boot, on
+    # every device, for a step that had nothing to do there. Skip, don't fail.
+    local gitdir
+    if ! gitdir="$(git -C "$SCRIPT_DIR" rev-parse --absolute-git-dir 2>/dev/null)" \
+       || [[ ! -w "$gitdir/config" ]]; then
+        note "Repo hooks skipped: ${SCRIPT_DIR} is not a git clone this user can configure (vendored/read-only copy)"
+        return 0
+    fi
+
     local cur
     cur="$(git -C "$SCRIPT_DIR" config --local core.hooksPath 2>/dev/null || true)"