diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/flex/2.5.35.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/flex/2.5.35.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8047080a125
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/flex/2.5.35.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, bison, m4 }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  name = "flex-2.5.35";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = mirror://sourceforge/flex/flex-2.5.35.tar.bz2;
+    sha256 = "0ysff249mwhq0053bw3hxh58djc0gy7vjan2z1krrf9n5d5vvv0b";
+  };
+
+  buildInputs = [ bison ];
+
+  propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [ m4 ];
+
+  crossAttrs = {
+    preConfigure = ''
+      export ac_cv_func_malloc_0_nonnull=yes
+      export ac_cv_func_realloc_0_nonnull=yes
+    '';
+  };
+
+  meta = {
+    homepage = http://flex.sourceforge.net/;
+    description = "A fast lexical analyser generator";
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 6ea5b6864ed..e0727ec4222 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -1122,7 +1122,7 @@ let
     buggyBiosCDSupport = config.grub.buggyBiosCDSupport or true;
   };
 
-  grub2 = callPackage ../tools/misc/grub/2.0x.nix { libusb = libusb1; };
+  grub2 = callPackage ../tools/misc/grub/2.0x.nix { libusb = libusb1; flex = flex_2_5_35; };
 
   grub2_efi = grub2.override { EFIsupport = true; };
 
@@ -3733,6 +3733,7 @@ let
   checkstyle = callPackage ../development/tools/analysis/checkstyle { };
 
   flex = callPackage ../development/tools/parsing/flex { };
+  flex_2_5_35 = callPackage ../development/tools/parsing/flex/2.5.35.nix { };
 
   m4 = gnum4;