diff --git a/pkgs/applications/version-management/git-and-tools/git/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/version-management/git-and-tools/git/default.nix
index 522a6fcd6a1..cb8d6a09503 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/version-management/git-and-tools/git/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/version-management/git-and-tools/git/default.nix
@@ -238,6 +238,7 @@ EOF
 
   ## InstallCheck
 
+  doCheck = false;
   doInstallCheck = true;
 
   installCheckTarget = "test";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix
index 89d394c8756..bd27041ba2d 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix
@@ -135,6 +135,11 @@ let
           ++ op (stdenv.hostPlatform != stdenv.buildPlatform)
              "--with-baseruby=${buildRuby}";
 
+        # fails with "16993 tests, 2229489 assertions, 105 failures, 14 errors, 89 skips"
+        # mostly TZ- and patch-related tests
+        # TZ- failures are caused by nix sandboxing, I didn't investigate others
+        doCheck = false;
+
         preInstall = ''
           # Ruby installs gems here itself now.
           mkdir -pv "$out/${passthru.gemPath}"
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/gvfs/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/gvfs/default.nix
index 4f3bc64b5d4..7ac5b875633 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/gvfs/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/gvfs/default.nix
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 , libxml2, libxslt, docbook_xsl, docbook_xml_dtd_42, samba, libmtp
 , gnomeSupport ? false, gnome, makeWrapper
 , libimobiledevice, libbluray, libcdio-paranoia, libnfs, openssh
-, libsecret, libgdata
+, libsecret, libgdata, python3
 # Remove when switching back to meson
 , autoreconfHook, lzma, bzip2
 }:
@@ -28,6 +28,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "1xq105596sk9yram5a143b369wpaiiwc9gz86n0j1kfr7nipkqn4";
   };
 
+  postPatch = ''
+    patchShebangs test test-driver
+  '';
+
   # Uncomment when switching back to meson
   # postPatch = ''
   #   chmod +x meson_post_install.py # patchShebangs requires executable file
@@ -73,6 +77,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
+  checkInputs = [ python3 ];
+  doCheck = false; # fails with "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'gi'"
+  doInstallCheck = doCheck;
+
   preFixup = ''
     for f in $out/libexec/*; do
       wrapProgram $f \
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/ilmbase/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/ilmbase/default.nix
index 956a8667be5..156b4f72749 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/ilmbase/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/ilmbase/default.nix
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   patches = [ ./bootstrap.patch ];
 
+  # fails 1 out of 1 tests with
+  # "lt-ImathTest: testBoxAlgo.cpp:892: void {anonymous}::boxMatrixTransform(): Assertion `b21 == b2' failed"
+  # at least on i686. spooky!
+  doCheck = stdenv.isx86_64;
+
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     homepage = http://www.openexr.com/;
     license = licenses.bsd3;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libcommuni/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libcommuni/default.nix
index 0788236b601..f247c48821f 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libcommuni/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libcommuni/default.nix
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   # The tests fail on darwin because of install_name if they run
   # before the frameworks are installed.
+  doCheck = false;
   doInstallCheck = true;
   installCheckTarget = "check";
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/librdf/rasqal.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/librdf/rasqal.nix
index 07f560fe272..124fd017818 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/librdf/rasqal.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/librdf/rasqal.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, librdf_raptor2, gmp, pkgconfig, pcre, libxml2 }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, librdf_raptor2, gmp, pkgconfig, pcre, libxml2, perl }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "rasqal-0.9.33";
@@ -16,6 +16,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   postInstall = "rm -rvf $out/share/gtk-doc";
 
+  checkInputs = [ perl ];
+  doCheck = false; # fails with "No testsuite plan file sparql-query-plan.ttl could be created in build/..."
+  doInstallCheck = false; # fails with "rasqal-config does not support (--help|--version)"
+
   meta = {
     description = "Library that handles Resource Description Framework (RDF)";
     homepage = http://librdf.org/rasqal;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/mdds/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/mdds/default.nix
index 90d86ea9165..43fee9ccead 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/mdds/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/mdds/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, boost }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   version = "1.3.1";
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
    cp "$out/share/pkgconfig/"* "$out/lib/pkgconfig"
   '';
 
+  checkInputs = [ boost ];
+
   meta = {
     inherit version;
     homepage = https://gitlab.com/mdds/mdds;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/neon/0.29.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/neon/0.29.nix
index e393d50bf9d..dbde83c2d94 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/neon/0.29.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/neon/0.29.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, libxml2, pkgconfig
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, libxml2, pkgconfig, perl
 , compressionSupport ? true, zlib ? null
 , sslSupport ? true, openssl ? null
 , static ? false
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   passthru = {inherit compressionSupport sslSupport;};
 
+  checkInputs = [ perl ];
+  doCheck = false; # fails, needs the net
+
   meta = {
     description = "An HTTP and WebDAV client library";
     homepage = http://www.webdav.org/neon/;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/neon/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/neon/default.nix
index 2351e3b0800..9c2a3265491 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/neon/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/neon/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, libxml2, pkgconfig
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, libxml2, pkgconfig, perl
 , compressionSupport ? true, zlib ? null
 , sslSupport ? true, openssl ? null
 , static ? false
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   passthru = {inherit compressionSupport sslSupport;};
 
+  checkInputs = [ perl ];
+  doCheck = false; # fails, needs the net
+
   meta = {
     description = "An HTTP and WebDAV client library";
     homepage = http://www.webdav.org/neon/;
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index c1957bd65be..44682592b2b 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -11058,15 +11058,9 @@ with pkgs;
 
   neardal = callPackage ../development/libraries/neardal { };
 
-  neon = callPackage ../development/libraries/neon {
-    compressionSupport = true;
-    sslSupport = true;
-  };
+  neon = callPackage ../development/libraries/neon { };
 
-  neon_0_29 = callPackage ../development/libraries/neon/0.29.nix {
-    compressionSupport = true;
-    sslSupport = true;
-  };
+  neon_0_29 = callPackage ../development/libraries/neon/0.29.nix { };
 
   nettle = callPackage ../development/libraries/nettle { };