diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
index 5ac14a36282..ea095706b22 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-{stdenv, fetchurl, gfortran, readline, ncurses, perl, flex, texinfo, qhull}:
+{stdenv, fetchurl, gfortran, readline, ncurses, perl, flex, texinfo, qhull,
+libX11}:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
   name = "octave-3.2.4";
@@ -6,6 +7,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
     url = ftp://ftp.octave.org/pub/octave/octave-3.2.4.tar.bz2;
     sha256 = "0iyivx7qz7cvwz7qczqrl4ysqivlhn5ax92z9md0m77dqw2isis8";
   };
-  buildInputs = [gfortran readline ncurses perl flex texinfo qhull];
+  buildInputs = [gfortran readline ncurses perl flex texinfo qhull libX11];
   configureFlags = "--enable-readline --enable-dl";
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 275abfcd1c4..1bc3b90cae3 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -2517,6 +2517,7 @@ let
 
   octave = import ../development/interpreters/octave {
     inherit stdenv fetchurl gfortran readline ncurses perl flex qhull texinfo;
+    inherit (xlibs) libX11;
   };
 
   # mercurial (hg) bleeding edge version