diff --git a/pkgs/applications/misc/xfontsel/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/misc/xfontsel/default.nix
index 222d8c412ce..7b8f4ae914b 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/misc/xfontsel/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/misc/xfontsel/default.nix
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # at http://www.x.org/releases/individual/.
 # That is why this expression is not inside pkgs.xorg
 
-{stdenv, fetchurl, libX11, pkgconfig, libXaw, libXi, imake, xauth, libXau}:
+{stdenv, fetchurl, libX11, pkgconfig, libXaw}:
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "xfontsel-1.0.2";
 
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   # This will not make xfontsel find its app-defaults, but at least the $out
   # directory will contain them.
   # hack: Copying the XFontSel app-defaults file to $HOME makes xfontsel work.
-  patchPhase = ''
-    sed -i 's@^appdefaultdir=.*@appdefaultdir='$out/share/X11/app-defaults@ configure
+  preInstall = ''
+    installFlags="appdefaultdir=$out/share/X11/app-defaults"
   '';
 }
 
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 5e4b937cc65..c74e7da3ba4 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -6733,8 +6733,7 @@ let
 
   xfontsel = import ../applications/misc/xfontsel {
     inherit fetchurl stdenv pkgconfig;
-    inherit (xlibs) libX11 libXi imake libXau libXaw;
-    inherit (xorg) xauth;
+    inherit (xlibs) libX11 libXaw;
   };
 
   fspot = import ../applications/graphics/f-spot {