diff --git a/pkgs/applications/misc/xfontsel/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/misc/xfontsel/default.nix
index c81a346914c9..3179e1f34401 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/misc/xfontsel/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/misc/xfontsel/default.nix
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # at http://www.x.org/releases/individual/.
 # That is why this expression is not inside pkgs.xorg
 
-{stdenv, fetchurl, libX11, pkgconfig, libXaw}:
+{stdenv, fetchurl, makeWrapper, libX11, pkgconfig, libXaw}:
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "xfontsel-1.0.2";
 
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "1a86a08sf0wjrki9ydh7hr5qf6hrixc4ljlxizakjzmx20wvlrks";
   };
 
-  buildInputs = [libX11 pkgconfig libXaw];
+  buildInputs = [libX11 makeWrapper pkgconfig libXaw];
 
   # Without this, it gets Xmu as a dependency, but without rpath entry
   NIX_LDFLAGS = "-lXmu";
@@ -19,8 +19,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   # This will not make xfontsel find its app-defaults, but at least the $out
   # directory will contain them.
   # hack: Copying the XFontSel app-defaults file to $HOME makes xfontsel work.
-  preInstall = ''
-    installFlags="appdefaultdir=$out/share/X11/app-defaults"
+  installPhase = ''
+    make install appdefaultdir=$out/share/X11/app-defaults
+    wrapProgram $out/bin/xfontsel \
+      --set XAPPLRESDIR $out/share/X11/app-defaults
   '';
 
   meta = {