diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix
index 8a07a9f9f22..428b9ee482e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix
@@ -3,9 +3,10 @@
 # use utillinuxMinimal to avoid circular dependency (utillinux, systemd, glib)
 , utillinuxMinimal ? null
 
-# this is just for tests (not in closure of any regular package)
-, coreutils, dbus, libxml2, tzdata, desktop-file-utils
-, shared-mime-info, doCheck ? false
+# this is just for tests (not in the closure of any regular package)
+, doCheck ? stdenv.config.doCheckByDefault or false
+, coreutils, dbus, libxml2, tzdata
+, desktop-file-utils, shared-mime-info
 }:
 
 with stdenv.lib;
@@ -66,8 +67,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   setupHook = ./setup-hook.sh;
 
   buildInputs = [ libelf setupHook pcre ]
-    ++ optionals stdenv.isLinux [ utillinuxMinimal ] # for libmount
-    ++ optionals doCheck [ tzdata libxml2 desktop-file-utils shared-mime-info ];
+    ++ optionals stdenv.isLinux [ utillinuxMinimal ]; # for libmount
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig perl python gettext ];
 
@@ -114,7 +114,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       -i "$dev"/include/glib-2.0/gobject/gobjectnotifyqueue.c
   '';
 
-  inherit doCheck;
+  checkInputs = [ tzdata libxml2 desktop-file-utils shared-mime-info ];
+
   preCheck = optionalString doCheck ''
     export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$NIX_BUILD_TOP/${name}/glib/.libs:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
     export TZDIR="${tzdata}/share/zoneinfo"
@@ -139,6 +140,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sed -e '/g_subprocess_launcher_set_environ (launcher, envp);/a g_subprocess_launcher_setenv (launcher, "PATH", g_getenv("PATH"), TRUE);' -i gio/tests/gsubprocess.c
   '';
 
+  inherit doCheck;
+
   passthru = {
     gioModuleDir = "lib/gio/modules";
     inherit flattenInclude;
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index add4e0f4e23..04d5f55fd5b 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -9521,12 +9521,16 @@ with pkgs;
 
   gtkmathview = callPackage ../development/libraries/gtkmathview { };
 
-  glib = callPackage ../development/libraries/glib {
-  };
-  glib-tested = glib.override { # checked version separate to break cycles
-    doCheck = true;
-    libffi = libffi.override { doCheck = true; };
-  };
+  glib = callPackage ../development/libraries/glib (let
+    glib-untested = glib.override { doCheck = false; };
+  in {
+    # break dependency cycles
+    # these things are only used for tests, they don't get into the closure
+    shared-mime-info = shared-mime-info.override { glib = glib-untested; };
+    desktop-file-utils = desktop-file-utils.override { glib = glib-untested; };
+    dbus = dbus.override { systemd = null; };
+  });
+
   glibmm = callPackage ../development/libraries/glibmm { };
 
   glib-networking = callPackage ../development/libraries/glib-networking {};