diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/valgrind/builder.sh b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/valgrind/builder.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..ec568b79a18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/valgrind/builder.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#! /bin/sh
+
+. $stdenv/setup || exit 1
+
+# !!! hack; this is because $linuxHeaders/config.h includes some
+# file autoconf.h.  What is that?
+export NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE="-D_LINUX_CONFIG_H $NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE"
+
+tar xvfj $src || exit 1
+cd valgrind-* || exit 1
+./configure --prefix=$out || exit 1
+make || exit 1
+make install || exit 1
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/valgrind/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/valgrind/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..772479d601f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/valgrind/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+{stdenv, fetchurl}:
+
+derivation {
+  name = "valgrind-2.1.0";
+  system = stdenv.system;
+  builder = ./builder.sh;
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = http://developer.kde.org/~sewardj/valgrind-2.1.0.tar.bz2;
+    md5 = "3e4056dd45163a5f555a23ced2f95191";
+  };
+  stdenv = stdenv;
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix b/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix
index a2ccf0c42f3..b518cef670d 100644
--- a/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix
@@ -182,6 +182,11 @@
     python = python;
   };
 
+  valgrind = (import ../development/tools/misc/valgrind) {
+    fetchurl = fetchurl;
+    stdenv = stdenv;
+  };
+
   gnumake = (import ../development/tools/build-managers/gnumake) {
     fetchurl = fetchurl;
     stdenv = stdenv;
diff --git a/pkgs/system/populate-cache.nix b/pkgs/system/populate-cache.nix
index 1ca75134b97..d2612c92046 100644
--- a/pkgs/system/populate-cache.nix
+++ b/pkgs/system/populate-cache.nix
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ let {
   body = 
     [ pkgs.zip
       pkgs.unzip
+      pkgs.valgrind
       pkgs.par2cmdline
       pkgs.graphviz
       pkgs.strategoxt093