diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/default.nix
index 7364920cba22c..12ef896117abb 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/default.nix
@@ -1,16 +1,21 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, fetchPypi, writeText, python, buildPythonPackage, isPy3k, pycairo, backports_functools_lru_cache
-, which, cycler, dateutil, nose, numpy, pyparsing, sphinx, tornado, kiwisolver
+{ lib, stdenv, fetchPypi, writeText, buildPythonPackage, isPy3k, pycairo
+, which, cycler, dateutil, numpy, pyparsing, sphinx, tornado, kiwisolver
 , freetype, qhull, libpng, pkg-config, mock, pytz, pygobject3, gobject-introspection
 , certifi, pillow
 , enableGhostscript ? true, ghostscript, gtk3
 , enableGtk3 ? false, cairo
 # darwin has its own "MacOSX" backend
-, enableTk ? !stdenv.isDarwin, tcl, tk, tkinter, libX11
+, enableTk ? !stdenv.isDarwin, tcl, tk, tkinter
 , enableQt ? false, pyqt5
+# required for headless detection
+, libX11, wayland
 , Cocoa
-, pythonOlder
 }:
 
+let
+  interactive = enableTk || enableGtk3 || enableQt;
+in
+
 buildPythonPackage rec {
   version = "3.4.1";
   pname = "matplotlib";
@@ -62,8 +67,14 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     let
       tcl_tk_cache = ''"${tk}/lib", "${tcl}/lib", "${lib.strings.substring 0 3 tk.version}"'';
     in
-    lib.optionalString enableTk
-      "sed -i '/self.tcl_tk_cache = None/s|None|${tcl_tk_cache}|' setupext.py";
+    lib.optionalString enableTk ''
+      sed -i '/self.tcl_tk_cache = None/s|None|${tcl_tk_cache}|' setupext.py
+    '' + lib.optionalString (stdenv.isLinux && interactive) ''
+      # fix paths to libraries in dlopen calls (headless detection)
+      substituteInPlace src/_c_internal_utils.c \
+        --replace libX11.so.6 ${libX11}/lib/libX11.so.6 \
+        --replace libwayland-client.so.0 ${wayland}/lib/libwayland-client.so.0
+    '';
 
   # Matplotlib needs to be built against a specific version of freetype in
   # order for all of the tests to pass.
@@ -72,6 +83,7 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
   meta = with lib; {
     description = "Python plotting library, making publication quality plots";
     homepage    = "https://matplotlib.org/";
+    license     = with licenses; [ psfl bsd0 ];
     maintainers = with maintainers; [ lovek323 veprbl ];
   };