diff --git a/pkgs/applications/window-managers/i3/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/window-managers/i3/default.nix
index 17a287f8aae..56b11df72e2 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/window-managers/i3/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/window-managers/i3/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 { fetchurl, stdenv, which, pkgconfig, libxcb, xcbutilkeysyms, xcbutil,
   xcbutilwm, libstartup_notification, libX11, pcre, libev, yajl,
-  xcb-util-cursor, coreutils, perl, pango }:
+  xcb-util-cursor, coreutils, perl, pango, perlPackages, xdummy }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "i3-${version}";
@@ -11,13 +11,25 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "0sqvd8yqf9vwqrrvbpbf8k93b3qfa3q9289m82xq15r31wlk8b2h";
   };
 
-  buildInputs = [ which pkgconfig libxcb xcbutilkeysyms xcbutil xcbutilwm
-    libstartup_notification libX11 pcre libev yajl xcb-util-cursor perl pango ];
+  buildInputs = [
+    which pkgconfig libxcb xcbutilkeysyms xcbutil xcbutilwm
+    libstartup_notification libX11 pcre libev yajl xcb-util-cursor perl pango
+    perlPackages.AnyEventI3 perlPackages.X11XCB perlPackages.IPCRun
+    perlPackages.ExtUtilsPkgConfig perlPackages.TestMore perlPackages.InlineC
+    perlPackages.CarpAlways
+  ];
 
   patchPhase = ''
     patchShebangs .
   '';
 
+  doCheck = true;
+
+  checkPhase = ''
+    ln -sf "${xdummy}/bin/xdummy" testcases/Xdummy
+    (cd testcases && perl complete-run.pl)
+  '';
+
   configurePhase = "makeFlags=PREFIX=$out";
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {