diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/h5py/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/h5py/default.nix
index 39a35ad49c6..9775b2f70a2 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/h5py/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/h5py/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 { stdenv, fetchurl, python, buildPythonPackage
-, numpy, hdf5, cython
+, numpy, hdf5, cython, six, pkgconfig
 , mpiSupport ? false, mpi4py ? null, mpi ? null }:
 
 assert mpiSupport == hdf5.mpiSupport;
@@ -12,24 +12,26 @@ assert mpiSupport -> mpi != null
 with stdenv.lib;
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
-  name = "h5py-2.3.1";
+  name = "h5py-${version}";
+  version = "2.5.0";
 
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/h/h5py/${name}.tar.gz";
-    md5 = "8f32f96d653e904d20f9f910c6d9dd91";
+    sha256 = "9833df8a679e108b561670b245bcf9f3a827b10ccb3a5fa1341523852cfac2f6";
   };
 
-  setupPyBuildFlags = [ "--hdf5=${hdf5}" ]
-    ++ optional mpiSupport "--mpi"
-    ;
-  setupPyInstallFlags = setupPyBuildFlags;
+  configure_flags = "--hdf5=${hdf5}" + optionalString mpiSupport " --mpi";
+
+  postConfigure = ''
+    ${python.executable} setup.py configure ${configure_flags}
+  '';
 
   preBuild = if mpiSupport then "export CC=${mpi}/bin/mpicc" else "";
 
-  buildInputs = [ hdf5 cython ]
+  buildInputs = [ hdf5 cython pkgconfig ]
     ++ optional mpiSupport mpi
     ;
-  propagatedBuildInputs = [ numpy ]
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ numpy six]
     ++ optional mpiSupport mpi4py
     ;