diff --git a/base/BUILD.gn b/base/BUILD.gn
index c79a1e5a6c..46e289c3e1 100644
--- a/base/BUILD.gn
+++ b/base/BUILD.gn
@@ -1818,7 +1818,11 @@ jumbo_component("base") {
   }
 
   if (dep_libevent) {
-    deps += [ "//base/third_party/libevent" ]
+    if (is_linux) {
+      libs += [ "event_core" ]
+    } else {
+      deps += [ "//base/third_party/libevent" ]
+    }
   }
 
   if (use_libevent) {
@@ -2566,6 +2570,7 @@ test("base_unittests") {
   ]
 
   defines = []
+  libs = []
 
   deps = [
     ":base",
@@ -2711,7 +2716,11 @@ test("base_unittests") {
 
   if (use_libevent) {
     sources += [ "message_loop/message_pump_libevent_unittest.cc" ]
-    deps += [ "//base/third_party/libevent" ]
+    if (is_linux) {
+      libs += [ "event_core" ]
+    } else {
+      deps += [ "//base/third_party/libevent" ]
+    }
   }
 
   if (is_fuchsia) {
diff --git a/base/message_loop/message_pump_libevent.cc b/base/message_loop/message_pump_libevent.cc
index 2a595e5fe5..e5380b1542 100644
--- a/base/message_loop/message_pump_libevent.cc
+++ b/base/message_loop/message_pump_libevent.cc
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
 #include "base/files/file_util.h"
 #include "base/logging.h"
 #include "base/posix/eintr_wrapper.h"
-#include "base/third_party/libevent/event.h"
 #include "base/time/time.h"
 #include "base/trace_event/trace_event.h"
 #include "build/build_config.h"
@@ -23,6 +22,12 @@
 #include "base/mac/scoped_nsautorelease_pool.h"
 #endif
 
+#if defined(OS_LINUX)
+#include <event.h>
+#else
+#include "base/third_party/libevent/event.h"
+#endif
+
 // Lifecycle of struct event
 // Libevent uses two main data structures:
 // struct event_base (of which there is one per message pump), and