diff --git a/pkgs/applications/misc/makeself/Use-rm-from-PATH.patch b/pkgs/applications/misc/makeself/Use-rm-from-PATH.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..80b9ebf4d57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/misc/makeself/Use-rm-from-PATH.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+From 81cf57e4653360af7f1718391e424fa05d8ea000 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Keshav Kini <keshav.kini@gmail.com>
+Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2018 18:36:15 -0700
+Subject: [PATCH] Use `rm` from PATH
+
+On NixOS (a Linux distribution), there is no `/bin/rm`, but an `rm`
+command will generally be available in one's path when running shell
+scripts. Here, I change a couple of invocations of `/bin/rm` into
+invocations of `rm` to deal with this issue.
+
+Since `rm` is already called elsewhere in the script without an
+absolute path, I assume this change will not cause any
+regressions. Still, I've tested this on a CentOS machine and a NixOS
+machine, though not other platforms.
+---
+ makeself-header.sh | 4 ++--
+ 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
+
+diff --git a/makeself-header.sh b/makeself-header.sh
+index 4d2c005..2babf34 100755
+--- a/makeself-header.sh
++++ b/makeself-header.sh
+@@ -515,7 +515,7 @@ if test x"\$quiet" = xn; then
+ fi
+ res=3
+ if test x"\$keep" = xn; then
+-    trap 'echo Signal caught, cleaning up >&2; cd \$TMPROOT; /bin/rm -rf "\$tmpdir"; eval \$finish; exit 15' 1 2 3 15
++    trap 'echo Signal caught, cleaning up >&2; cd \$TMPROOT; rm -rf "\$tmpdir"; eval \$finish; exit 15' 1 2 3 15
+ fi
+ 
+ if test x"\$nodiskspace" = xn; then
+@@ -581,7 +581,7 @@ if test x"\$script" != x; then
+ fi
+ if test x"\$keep" = xn; then
+     cd "\$TMPROOT"
+-    /bin/rm -rf "\$tmpdir"
++    rm -rf "\$tmpdir"
+ fi
+ eval \$finish; exit \$res
+ EOF
+-- 
+2.14.1
+
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/misc/makeself/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/misc/makeself/default.nix
index a9ec2760e8a..a6af1762e28 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/misc/makeself/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/misc/makeself/default.nix
@@ -11,7 +11,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "1lw3gx1zpzp2wmzrw5v7k31vfsrdzadqha9ni309fp07g8inrr9n";
   };
 
-  patchPhase = ''
+  # backported from https://github.com/megastep/makeself/commit/77156e28ff21231c400423facc7049d9c60fd1bd
+  patches = [ ./Use-rm-from-PATH.patch ];
+
+  postPatch = ''
     sed -e "s|^HEADER=.*|HEADER=$out/share/${name}/makeself-header.sh|" -i makeself.sh
   '';