diff --git a/pkgs/applications/science/xplanet/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/science/xplanet/default.nix
index cb3c47734bd..15e04c3835c 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/science/xplanet/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/science/xplanet/default.nix
@@ -2,11 +2,22 @@
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
   name = "xplanet-1.2.1";
+
   src = fetchurl {
     url = mirror://sourceforge/xplanet/xplanet-1.2.1.tar.gz;
     sha256 = "1pp55a1rgjkfcrwc00y3l48fhpqcp3qagd1zbym6zg27fzi5fbgm";
   };
+
+  patches = 
+    [ # Build on GCC 4.4.
+      (fetchurl {
+        url = "http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/*checkout*/gentoo-x86/x11-misc/xplanet/files/xplanet-1.2.1-gentoo.patch?rev=1.1";
+        sha256 = "0mmagjizj4hj057qmpi45w95zlrqda32x96xy44f6126xzj02yd5";
+      })
+    ];
+
   buildInputs = [ pkgconfig freetype pango libpng libtiff giflib libjpeg ];
+
   meta = {
     description = "Renders an image of the earth or other planets into the X root window";
     homepage = http://xplanet.sourceforge.net;