diff --git a/pkgs/applications/audio/abcde/cd-paranoia.patch b/pkgs/applications/audio/abcde/cd-paranoia.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..58cada65fb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/audio/abcde/cd-paranoia.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+Choose the right CDROM reader syntax for `cd-paranoia'.
+
+--- abcde-2.3.99.6/abcde	2006-08-05 21:14:00.000000000 +0200
++++ abcde-2.3.99.6/abcde	2008-10-29 22:55:38.000000000 +0100
+@@ -3184,7 +3184,10 @@ if [ -n "$DISCID" ] || [ "$CDROMREADERSY
+ if [ "$CDROMREADERSYNTAX" = "" ]; then
+ 	for DEFAULT_CDROMREADER in $DEFAULT_CDROMREADERS; do
+ 		if new_checkexec $DEFAULT_CDROMREADER; then
+-			CDROMREADERSYNTAX=$DEFAULT_CDROMREADER
++                        case "$DEFAULT_CDROMREADER" in
++			  cd-paranoia)  CDROMREADERSYNTAX=cdparanoia;;
++			  *)            CDROMREADERSYNTAX=$DEFAULT_CDROMREADER;;
++			esac
+ 			break
+ 		fi
+ 	done
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/audio/abcde/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/audio/abcde/default.nix
index 72e277128ff..2b581f7e532 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/audio/abcde/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/audio/abcde/default.nix
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ in
     # FIXME: This package does not support MP3 encoding (only Ogg),
     # nor `distmp3', `eject', etc.
 
-    patches = [ ./install.patch ];
+    patches = [ ./install.patch ./which.patch ./cd-paranoia.patch ];
 
     configurePhase = ''
       sed -i "s|^[[:blank:]]*prefix *=.*$|prefix = $out|g ;
@@ -23,7 +23,8 @@ in
 
       # We use `cd-paranoia' from GNU libcdio, which contains a hyphen
       # in its name, unlike Xiph's cdparanoia.
-      sed -i "s|^[[:blank:]]*CDPARANOIA=.*$|CDPARANOIA=cd-paranoia|g" \
+      sed -i "s|^[[:blank:]]*CDPARANOIA=.*$|CDPARANOIA=cd-paranoia|g ;
+              s|^[[:blank:]]*DEFAULT_CDROMREADERS=.*$|DEFAULT_CDROMREADERS=\"cd-paranoia cdda2wav\"|g" \
            "abcde"
 
       substituteInPlace "abcde"					\
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/audio/abcde/which.patch b/pkgs/applications/audio/abcde/which.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..70474000ddd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/audio/abcde/which.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+Add an alias for `which'.
+
+--- abcde-2.3.99.6/abcde	2006-08-05 21:14:00.000000000 +0200
++++ abcde-2.3.99.6/abcde	2008-10-29 22:49:16.000000000 +0100
+@@ -15,6 +15,11 @@
+ 
+ VERSION='2.3.99-$Revision: 222M $'
+ 
++which ()
++{
++  type -P $1
++}
++
+ usage ()
+ {
+ echo "This is abcde v$VERSION."