diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/combine.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/combine.nix
index 1faf731fd76..abfe951a33f 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/combine.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/combine.nix
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ let
       ++ lib.optional (lib.any pkgNeedsPython splitBin.wrong) ruby;
   };
 
-  mkUniquePkgs = pkgs: fastUnique (a: b: a < b)
+  mkUniquePkgs = pkgs: fastUnique (a: b: a < b) # highlighting hack: >
     # here we deal with those dummy packages needed for hyphenation filtering
     (map (p: if lib.isDerivation p then builtins.toPath p else "") pkgs);
 
@@ -58,6 +58,17 @@ in buildEnv {
       '')
       pkgList.bin
     +
+
+    # Patch texlinks.sh back to 2015 version;
+    # otherwise some bin/ links break, e.g. xe(la)tex.
+  ''
+    (
+      cd "$out/share/texmf/scripts/texlive"
+      local target="$(readlink texlinks.sh)"
+      rm texlinks.sh && cp "$target" texlinks.sh
+      patch --verbose -R texlinks.sh < '${./texlinks.diff}'
+    )
+  '' +
   ''
     export PATH="$out/bin:$out/share/texmf/scripts/texlive:${perl}/bin:$PATH"
     export TEXMFCNF="$out/share/texmf/web2c"
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/texlinks.diff b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/texlinks.diff
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..97770cc812f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/texlinks.diff
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@
+       verbose_echo "skipped ConTeXtish symlink $src -> $dest (special case)"
+       ;;
+     *)
+-      test ! -f "$src" &&
++      test "x$src" != "x`(ls -ld $src | awk '{print $NF}') 2>/dev/null`" &&
+         rm -f "$src"
+   
+       if test -f "$src"; then