diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/camlidl/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/camlidl/default.nix
index 36a1c7f755e1..1c3da92273ce 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/camlidl/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/camlidl/default.nix
@@ -15,6 +15,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   buildInputs = [ ocaml ];
 
+  # build fails otherwise
+  enableParallelBuilding = false;
+
   preBuild = ''
     mv config/Makefile.unix config/Makefile
     substituteInPlace config/Makefile --replace BINDIR=/usr/local/bin BINDIR=$out