diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kmod/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kmod/default.nix
index c75b8bec146..32e4215d6c6 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kmod/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kmod/default.nix
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
 
   configureFlags = [ "--with-xz" "--with-zlib" ];
 
+  patches = [ ./module-dir.patch ];
+
   meta = {
     homepage = http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/kmod/;
     description = "Tools for loading and managing Linux kernel modules";
diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kmod/module-dir.patch b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kmod/module-dir.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..95d08da4580
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kmod/module-dir.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+diff -Naur kmod-7-orig/libkmod/libkmod.c kmod-7/libkmod/libkmod.c
+--- kmod-7-orig/libkmod/libkmod.c	2012-03-15 08:19:16.750010226 -0400
++++ kmod-7/libkmod/libkmod.c	2012-04-04 15:21:29.532074313 -0400
+@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@
+ static char *get_kernel_release(const char *dirname)
+ {
+ 	struct utsname u;
+-	char *p;
++	char *p, *dirname_prefix;
+ 
+ 	if (dirname != NULL)
+ 		return path_make_absolute_cwd(dirname);
+@@ -208,7 +208,10 @@
+ 	if (uname(&u) < 0)
+ 		return NULL;
+ 
+-	if (asprintf(&p, "%s/%s", dirname_default_prefix, u.release) < 0)
++	if ((dirname_prefix = getenv("MODULE_DIR")) == NULL)
++		dirname_prefix = dirname_default_prefix;
++
++	if (asprintf(&p, "%s/%s", dirname_prefix, u.release) < 0)
+ 		return NULL;
+ 
+ 	return p;