diff --git a/pkgs/tools/misc/coreutils/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/misc/coreutils/default.nix
index c9d8f0ad602..adbe62dd494 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/misc/coreutils/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/misc/coreutils/default.nix
@@ -19,13 +19,22 @@ let
       sha256 = "0w11jw3fb5sslf0f72kxy7llxgk1ia3a6bcw0c9kmvxrlj355mx2";
     };
 
-    patches = if stdenv.isCygwin then [ ./coreutils-8.23-4.cygwin.patch ] else null;
+    patches = (optional stdenv.isCygwin ./coreutils-8.23-4.cygwin.patch) ++
+              (optional stdenv.isArm (fetchurl {
+                  url = "http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git/patch/?id=3ba68f9e64fa2eb8af22d510437a0c6441feb5e0";
+                  sha256 = "1dnlszhc8lihhg801i9sz896mlrgfsjfcz62636prb27k5hmixqz";
+                  name = "coreutils-tail-inotify-race.patch";
+              }));
 
     # The test tends to fail on btrfs and maybe other unusual filesystems.
     postPatch = stdenv.lib.optionalString (!stdenv.isDarwin) ''
       sed '2i echo Skipping dd sparse test && exit 0' -i ./tests/dd/sparse.sh
       sed '2i echo Skipping cp sparse test && exit 0' -i ./tests/cp/sparse.sh
-    '';
+    '' +
+       # This is required by coreutils-tail-inotify-race.patch to avoid more deps
+       stdenv.lib.optionalString stdenv.isArm ''
+         touch -r src/stat.c src/tail.c
+       '';
 
     nativeBuildInputs = [ perl ];
     buildInputs = [ gmp ]