diff --git a/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/grub/grub.nix b/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/grub/grub.nix
index b760c3f96dd..49e73588ed6 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/grub/grub.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/grub/grub.nix
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ let
       inherit (efi) canTouchEfiVariables;
       inherit (cfg)
         version extraConfig extraPerEntryConfig extraEntries forceInstall useOSProber
+        extraGrubInstallArgs
         extraEntriesBeforeNixOS extraPrepareConfig configurationLimit copyKernels
         default fsIdentifier efiSupport efiInstallAsRemovable gfxmodeEfi gfxmodeBios gfxpayloadEfi gfxpayloadBios;
       path = with pkgs; makeBinPath (
@@ -298,6 +299,33 @@ in
         '';
       };
 
+      extraGrubInstallArgs = mkOption {
+        default = [ ];
+        example = [ "--modules=nativedisk ahci pata part_gpt part_msdos diskfilter mdraid1x lvm ext2" ];
+        type = types.listOf types.str;
+        description = ''
+          Additional arguments passed to <literal>grub-install</literal>.
+
+          A use case for this is to build specific GRUB2 modules
+          directly into the GRUB2 kernel image, so that they are available
+          and activated even in the <literal>grub rescue</literal> shell.
+
+          They are also necessary when the BIOS/UEFI is bugged and cannot
+          correctly read large disks (e.g. above 2 TB), so GRUB2's own
+          <literal>nativedisk</literal> and related modules can be used
+          to use its own disk drivers. The example shows one such case.
+          This is also useful for booting from USB.
+          See the
+          <link xlink:href="http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/tree/grub-core/commands/nativedisk.c?h=grub-2.04#n326">
+          GRUB source code
+          </link>
+          for which disk modules are available.
+
+          The list elements are passed directly as <literal>argv</literal>
+          arguments to the <literal>grub-install</literal> program, in order.
+        '';
+      };
+
       extraPerEntryConfig = mkOption {
         default = "";
         example = "root (hd0)";
@@ -669,7 +697,7 @@ in
         in pkgs.writeScript "install-grub.sh" (''
         #!${pkgs.runtimeShell}
         set -e
-        export PERL5LIB=${with pkgs.perlPackages; makePerlPath [ FileSlurp XMLLibXML XMLSAX XMLSAXBase ListCompare ]}
+        export PERL5LIB=${with pkgs.perlPackages; makePerlPath [ FileSlurp XMLLibXML XMLSAX XMLSAXBase ListCompare JSON ]}
         ${optionalString cfg.enableCryptodisk "export GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK=y"}
       '' + flip concatMapStrings cfg.mirroredBoots (args: ''
         ${pkgs.perl}/bin/perl ${install-grub-pl} ${grubConfig args} $@
diff --git a/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/grub/install-grub.pl b/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/grub/install-grub.pl
index b55b82abb84..422ca81847c 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/grub/install-grub.pl
+++ b/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/grub/install-grub.pl
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ use File::stat;
 use File::Copy;
 use File::Slurp;
 use File::Temp;
+use JSON;
 require List::Compare;
 use POSIX;
 use Cwd;
@@ -606,9 +607,12 @@ struct(GrubState => {
     efi => '$',
     devices => '$',
     efiMountPoint => '$',
+    extraGrubInstallArgs => '@',
 });
+# If you add something to the state file, only add it to the end
+# because it is read line-by-line.
 sub readGrubState {
-    my $defaultGrubState = GrubState->new(name => "", version => "", efi => "", devices => "", efiMountPoint => "" );
+    my $defaultGrubState = GrubState->new(name => "", version => "", efi => "", devices => "", efiMountPoint => "", extraGrubInstallArgs => () );
     open FILE, "<$bootPath/grub/state" or return $defaultGrubState;
     local $/ = "\n";
     my $name = <FILE>;
@@ -621,16 +625,34 @@ sub readGrubState {
     chomp($devices);
     my $efiMountPoint = <FILE>;
     chomp($efiMountPoint);
+    # Historically, arguments in the state file were one per each line, but that
+    # gets really messy when newlines are involved, structured arguments
+    # like lists are needed (they have to have a separator encoding), or even worse,
+    # when we need to remove a setting in the future. Thus, the 6th line is a JSON
+    # object that can store structured data, with named keys, and all new state
+    # should go in there.
+    my $jsonStateLine = <FILE>;
+    # For historical reasons we do not check the values above for un-definedness
+    # (that is, when the state file has too few lines and EOF is reached),
+    # because the above come from the first version of this logic and are thus
+    # guaranteed to be present.
+    $jsonStateLine = defined $jsonStateLine ? $jsonStateLine : '{}'; # empty JSON object
+    chomp($jsonStateLine);
+    my %jsonState = %{decode_json($jsonStateLine)};
+    my @extraGrubInstallArgs = @{$jsonState{'extraGrubInstallArgs'}};
     close FILE;
-    my $grubState = GrubState->new(name => $name, version => $version, efi => $efi, devices => $devices, efiMountPoint => $efiMountPoint );
+    my $grubState = GrubState->new(name => $name, version => $version, efi => $efi, devices => $devices, efiMountPoint => $efiMountPoint, extraGrubInstallArgs => \@extraGrubInstallArgs );
     return $grubState
 }
 
 my @deviceTargets = getList('devices');
 my $prevGrubState = readGrubState();
 my @prevDeviceTargets = split/,/, $prevGrubState->devices;
+my @extraGrubInstallArgs = getList('extraGrubInstallArgs');
+my @prevExtraGrubInstallArgs = $prevGrubState->extraGrubInstallArgs;
 
 my $devicesDiffer = scalar (List::Compare->new( '-u', '-a', \@deviceTargets, \@prevDeviceTargets)->get_symmetric_difference());
+my $extraGrubInstallArgsDiffer = scalar (List::Compare->new( '-u', '-a', \@extraGrubInstallArgs, \@prevExtraGrubInstallArgs)->get_symmetric_difference());
 my $nameDiffer = get("fullName") ne $prevGrubState->name;
 my $versionDiffer = get("fullVersion") ne $prevGrubState->version;
 my $efiDiffer = $efiTarget ne $prevGrubState->efi;
@@ -639,7 +661,7 @@ if (($ENV{'NIXOS_INSTALL_GRUB'} // "") eq "1") {
     warn "NIXOS_INSTALL_GRUB env var deprecated, use NIXOS_INSTALL_BOOTLOADER";
     $ENV{'NIXOS_INSTALL_BOOTLOADER'} = "1";
 }
-my $requireNewInstall = $devicesDiffer || $nameDiffer || $versionDiffer || $efiDiffer || $efiMountPointDiffer || (($ENV{'NIXOS_INSTALL_BOOTLOADER'} // "") eq "1");
+my $requireNewInstall = $devicesDiffer || $extraGrubInstallArgsDiffer || $nameDiffer || $versionDiffer || $efiDiffer || $efiMountPointDiffer || (($ENV{'NIXOS_INSTALL_BOOTLOADER'} // "") eq "1");
 
 # install a symlink so that grub can detect the boot drive
 my $tmpDir = File::Temp::tempdir(CLEANUP => 1) or die "Failed to create temporary space";
@@ -650,7 +672,7 @@ if (($requireNewInstall != 0) && ($efiTarget eq "no" || $efiTarget eq "both")) {
     foreach my $dev (@deviceTargets) {
         next if $dev eq "nodev";
         print STDERR "installing the GRUB $grubVersion boot loader on $dev...\n";
-        my @command = ("$grub/sbin/grub-install", "--recheck", "--root-directory=$tmpDir", Cwd::abs_path($dev));
+        my @command = ("$grub/sbin/grub-install", "--recheck", "--root-directory=$tmpDir", Cwd::abs_path($dev), @extraGrubInstallArgs);
         if ($forceInstall eq "true") {
             push @command, "--force";
         }
@@ -665,7 +687,7 @@ if (($requireNewInstall != 0) && ($efiTarget eq "no" || $efiTarget eq "both")) {
 # install EFI GRUB
 if (($requireNewInstall != 0) && ($efiTarget eq "only" || $efiTarget eq "both")) {
     print STDERR "installing the GRUB $grubVersion EFI boot loader into $efiSysMountPoint...\n";
-    my @command = ("$grubEfi/sbin/grub-install", "--recheck", "--target=$grubTargetEfi", "--boot-directory=$bootPath", "--efi-directory=$efiSysMountPoint");
+    my @command = ("$grubEfi/sbin/grub-install", "--recheck", "--target=$grubTargetEfi", "--boot-directory=$bootPath", "--efi-directory=$efiSysMountPoint", @extraGrubInstallArgs);
     if ($forceInstall eq "true") {
         push @command, "--force";
     }
@@ -692,6 +714,11 @@ if ($requireNewInstall != 0) {
     print FILE $efiTarget, "\n" or die;
     print FILE join( ",", @deviceTargets ), "\n" or die;
     print FILE $efiSysMountPoint, "\n" or die;
+    my %jsonState = (
+        extraGrubInstallArgs => \@extraGrubInstallArgs
+    );
+    my $jsonStateLine = encode_json(\%jsonState);
+    print FILE $jsonStateLine, "\n" or die;
     close FILE or die;
 
     # Atomically switch to the new state file