diff --git a/pkgs/tools/package-management/checkinstall/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/package-management/checkinstall/default.nix
index f7a8321fe317..62bc372a1ff0 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/package-management/checkinstall/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/package-management/checkinstall/default.nix
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 {stdenv, fetchurl, gettext}:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
-  name = "checkinstall-1.6.1";
+  name = "checkinstall-1.6.2pre20081116";
 
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = http://checkinstall.izto.org/files/source/checkinstall-1.6.1.tgz;
-    sha256 = "0p6gbbnk4hjwkmv8dr7c4v5wpdnanczavi7yiiivvf45zyfl8lil";
+    url = http://nixos.org/tarballs/checkinstall-1.6.2pre20081116.tar.bz2;
+    sha256 = "0k8i551rcn2g0jxskq2sgy4m85irdf5zsl2q4w9b7npgnybkzsmb";
   };
 
   buildInputs = [gettext];
@@ -15,6 +15,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
 
     substituteInPlace checkinstall --replace /usr/local/lib/checkinstall $out/lib/checkinstall
     substituteInPlace checkinstallrc-dist --replace /usr/local $out
+
+    substituteInPlace installwatch/create-localdecls \
+      --replace /usr/include/unistd.h ${stdenv.glibc}/include/unistd.h
   '';
 
   postInstall =
@@ -27,12 +30,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
       ''
     else "";
 
-  patches = [
-    # Necessary for building on x86_64, see
-    # http://checkinstall.izto.org/cklist/msg00256.html
-    ./readlink.patch
-  ];
-
   meta = {
     homepage = http://checkinstall.izto.org/;
     description = "A tool for automatically generating Slackware, RPM or Debian packages when doing `make install'";
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/package-management/checkinstall/readlink.patch b/pkgs/tools/package-management/checkinstall/readlink.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index f276c057d8f9..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/tools/package-management/checkinstall/readlink.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,40 +0,0 @@
---- a/installwatch-0.7.0beta5/installwatch.c	2007-04-07 14:27:23.000000000 -0400
-+++ b/installwatch-0.7.0beta5/installwatch.c	2007-04-07 14:25:06.000000000 -0400
-@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@
- static int (*true_open)(const char *, int, ...);
- static DIR *(*true_opendir)(const char *);
- static struct dirent *(*true_readdir)(DIR *dir);
--static int (*true_readlink)(const char*,char *,size_t);
-+static ssize_t (*true_readlink)(const char*,char *,size_t);
- static char *(*true_realpath)(const char *,char *);
- static int (*true_rename)(const char *, const char *);
- static int (*true_rmdir)(const char *);
-@@ -546,7 +546,7 @@
- 	struct utimbuf timbuf;
- 	size_t truesz;
- 	char linkpath[PATH_MAX+1];
--	size_t linksz;
-+	ssize_t linksz;
- 
- #if DEBUG
- 	debug(2,"copy_path(%s,%s)\n",truepath,translroot);
-@@ -1582,7 +1582,7 @@
- 	struct stat reslvinfo;
- 	instw_t iw;
- 	char wpath[PATH_MAX+1];
--	size_t wsz=0;
-+	ssize_t wsz=0;
- 	char linkpath[PATH_MAX+1];
- 
- 
-@@ -2698,8 +2698,8 @@
- 	return result;
- }
- 
--int readlink(const char *path,char *buf,size_t bufsiz) {
--	int result;
-+ssize_t readlink(const char *path,char *buf,size_t bufsiz) {
-+	ssize_t result;
- 	instw_t instw;
- 	int status;
-