diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/builder.sh b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/builder.sh
deleted file mode 100644
index 244f8ef9553..00000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/builder.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-set -x
-
-. $stdenv/setup
-
-g77orig=$(cat $g77/nix-support/orig-gcc)
-export NIX_LDFLAGS="-rpath $g77orig/lib $NIX_LDFLAGS"
-
-export NIX_STRIP_DEBUG=
-export NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE="-g $NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE"
-
-tar xvfz $src
-cd octave-*
-./autogen.sh
-./configure --prefix=$out --enable-readline
-make
-make install
-#strip -S $out/lib/*/*.a
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
index 11fca46c00d..b5476caf610 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
@@ -1,16 +1,14 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, autoconf, gcc, g77, texinfo, bison, flex, gperf, readline, ncurses}:
+{stdenv, fetchurl, g77, readline, ncurses}:
 
-assert autoconf != null && texinfo != null
-  && bison != null && flex != null && gperf != null && readline != null && ncurses != null ;
+assert readline != null && ncurses != null;
 assert g77.langF77;
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
   name = "octave-2.1.57";
-  builder = ./builder.sh;
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = ftp://ftp.octave.org/pub/octave/bleeding-edge/octave-2.1.57.tar.gz ;
-    md5 = "a0171814e005ce6d77365e7d831eef45";
+    url = ftp://ftp.octave.org/pub/octave/octave-2.1.57.tar.bz2;
+    md5 = "b781f5d0cd750cb9bb3ef23523f5f339";
   };
-  inherit autoconf gcc g77 texinfo bison flex gperf readline;
-  buildInputs = [autoconf gcc g77 texinfo bison flex gperf readline ncurses] ;
+  buildInputs = [g77 readline ncurses];
+  configureFlags = "--enable-readline";
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix b/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix
index 2948d2a2791..9251b2dc561 100644
--- a/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix
@@ -201,8 +201,7 @@ rec {
   };
 
   octave = (import ../development/interpreters/octave) {
-    inherit fetchurl stdenv autoconf gcc g77 texinfo flex gperf readline ncurses;
-    bison = bisonnew;
+    inherit fetchurl stdenv readline ncurses g77;
   };
 
   gnumake = (import ../development/tools/build-managers/gnumake) {