diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/icecat-3/skip-gre-registration.patch b/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/icecat-3/skip-gre-registration.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d1fb4e3f30a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/icecat-3/skip-gre-registration.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+Skip "GRE" registration since that assumes write access to `/etc'.
+
+--- icecat-3.0.1-g1/xulrunner/installer/Makefile.in	2008-07-27 12:52:16.000000000 +0200
++++ icecat-3.0.1-g1/xulrunner/installer/Makefile.in	2008-09-08 17:19:17.000000000 +0200
+@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ $(MOZILLA_VERSION).system.conf: $(topsrc
+ 	printf "[%s]\nGRE_PATH=%s\nxulrunner=true\nabi=%s" \
+ 	  $(MOZILLA_VERSION) $(installdir) $(TARGET_XPCOM_ABI)> $@
+ 
++SKIP_GRE_REGISTRATION = yes
+ ifndef SKIP_GRE_REGISTRATION
+ # to register xulrunner per-user, override this with $HOME/.gre.d
+ regdir = /etc/gre.d