diff --git a/pkgs/misc/nix-unstable/builder.sh b/pkgs/misc/nix-unstable/builder.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0decd4f50c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/misc/nix-unstable/builder.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+source $stdenv/setup
+
+configureFlags="\
+  --with-store-dir=$storeDir --localstatedir=$stateDir \
+  --with-aterm=$aterm --with-bdb=$bdb \
+  --disable-init-state"
+
+genericBuild
diff --git a/pkgs/misc/nix-unstable/default.nix b/pkgs/misc/nix-unstable/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4cfac615325
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/misc/nix-unstable/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, aterm, bdb, perl, curl
+, storeDir ? "/nix/store"
+, stateDir ? "/nix/var"
+}:
+
+assert aterm != null && bdb != null && perl != null;
+# assert bdb.version >= 4.2
+# assert aterm.version >= 2.0
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  name = "nix-0.10pre5214";
+  builder = ./builder.sh;
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = http://nix.cs.uu.nl/dist/nix/nix-0.10pre5214/nix-0.10pre5214.tar.bz2;
+    md5 = "a6e9e551a5d45d5850e4b94f8c1c8f0a";
+  };
+  buildInputs = [aterm bdb perl curl];
+  #patches = [./nix-profile-0.9.2.patch];
+  inherit storeDir stateDir aterm bdb;
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/misc/nix-unstable/nix-profile-0.9.2.patch b/pkgs/misc/nix-unstable/nix-profile-0.9.2.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9acc802a2a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/misc/nix-unstable/nix-profile-0.9.2.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+diff -ruN nix-0.9.2/scripts/nix-profile.sh.in nix-0.9.2.new/scripts/nix-profile.sh.in
+--- nix-0.9.2/scripts/nix-profile.sh.in	2005-09-21 20:29:43.000000000 +0200
++++ nix-0.9.2.new/scripts/nix-profile.sh.in	2005-10-11 18:44:57.000000000 +0200
+@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
+     if ! test -L "$NIX_LINK"; then
+         echo "creating $NIX_LINK"
+         _NIX_DEF_LINK=@localstatedir@/nix/profiles/default
+-        ln -s "$_NIX_DEF_LINK" "$NIX_LINK"
++        @coreutils@/ln -s "$_NIX_DEF_LINK" "$NIX_LINK"
+     fi
+ 
+     export PATH=$NIX_LINK/bin:@prefix@/bin:$PATH