diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/firmware/firmware-linux-free/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/firmware/firmware-linux-free/default.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 73f8c4f1d7d..00000000000
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/firmware/firmware-linux-free/default.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,21 +0,0 @@
-{stdenv, fetchurl}:
-
-stdenv.mkDerivation {
-  name = "firmware-linux-free-3";
-
-  src = fetchurl {
-      url = "mirror://debian/pool/main/f/firmware-free/firmware-free_3.tar.gz";
-      sha256 = "8363230e56365dd6b5e8ae9fd6cefab83472f4842f7221ffc2d890eaf7d7f1ef";
-    };
- 
-  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "installPhase" ];
-
-  installPhase = ''ensureDir $out && cp -ra * $out/'';
-
-  meta = {
-    description = "Free kernel firmware (packaged by Debian)";
-    homepage = "http://packages.debian.org/sid/firmware-linux-nonfree";
-    license = "free";
-    priority = "10";
-  };
-}
diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/firmware/firmware-linux-nonfree/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/firmware/firmware-linux-nonfree/default.nix
index d501891d2a1..6ad2227ee69 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/firmware/firmware-linux-nonfree/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/firmware/firmware-linux-nonfree/default.nix
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+# TODO: some files are not at the right place.
+# For now, we take the strategy of adding symlinks to fix this,
+# however it is probably better to extract the files from
+# the appropriate debian binary packages.
+
 {stdenv, fetchurl}:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
@@ -8,10 +13,13 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
       sha256 = "94fe856d00f63559486b7684c0fae9b30bee599c6d7dea8c7e00d2dcb548ee8a";
     };
  
-  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "installPhase" "postInstall" ];
+  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "patchPhase" "installPhase" "postInstall" ];
+
+  patchPhase = "rm -rf debian defines TODO";
 
   installPhase = "ensureDir $out && cp -ra * $out/";
 
+  # repeat the same trick for radeon, 3com, etc.
   postInstall = "ln -s $out/realtek/rtlwifi $out/rtlwifi";
 
   meta = {
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 792588c9fa9..8d6884a4b9d 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -6013,7 +6013,6 @@ let
   qemu_kvm = callPackage ../os-specific/linux/qemu-kvm { };
 
   firmwareLinuxNonfree = callPackage ../os-specific/linux/firmware/firmware-linux-nonfree { };
-  firmwareLinuxFree = callPackage ../os-specific/linux/firmware/firmware-linux-free { };
 
   radeontools = callPackage ../os-specific/linux/radeontools { };