diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/elm.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/elm.nix
index 3daa1b507b7..622f182e8c5 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/elm.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/elm.nix
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ cabal.mkDerivation (self: {
     unorderedContainers yaml
   ];
   doCheck = false;
+  preConfigure = ''
+    rm -f Setup.hs
+    echo -e "import Distribution.Simple\nmain=defaultMain\n" > Setup.hs
+  '';
   meta = {
     homepage = "http://elm-lang.org";
     description = "The Elm language module";