diff --git a/pkgs/applications/inferno/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/inferno/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6a1a3be27dd5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/inferno/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+{ fetchurl, fetchhg, stdenv, xlibs, gcc46, makeWrapper }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  # Inferno is a rolling release from a mercurial repository. For the verison number
+  # of the package I'm using the mercurial commit number.
+  version = "645";
+  name = "inferno-${version}";
+
+  # The mercurial repository does not contain all the components needed for the
+  # runtime system. The 'base' package contains these. For this package I download
+  # the base, extract the elements required from that, and add them to the source
+  # pulled from the mercurial repository.
+  srcBase = fetchurl {
+    url = "http://www.vitanuova.com/dist/4e/inferno-20100120.tgz";
+    sha256 = "0msvy3iwl4n5k0ry0xiyysjkq0qsawmwn3hvg67hbi5y8g7f7l88";
+  };
+
+  src = fetchhg {
+    url    = "https://inferno-os.googlecode.com/hg";
+    rev    = "7ab390b860ca";
+    sha256 = "09y0iclb3yy10gw1p0182sddg64xh60q2fx4ai7lxyfb65i76qbh";
+  };
+
+  # Fails with gcc48 due to inferno triggering an optimisation issue with floating point.
+  buildInputs = [ gcc46 xlibs.libX11 xlibs.libXpm xlibs.libXext xlibs.xextproto makeWrapper ];
+
+  infernoWrapper = ./inferno;
+
+  configurePhase = ''
+    tar --strip-components=1 -xvf $srcBase inferno/fonts inferno/Mkdirs inferno/empties
+    sed -e 's@^ROOT=.*$@ROOT='"$out"'/share/inferno@g' -e 's@^OBJTYPE=.*$@OBJTYPE=386@g' -e 's@^SYSHOST=.*$@SYSHOST=Linux@g' -i mkconfig
+    mkdir prof
+    sh Mkdirs
+  '';
+
+  buildPhase = ''
+    export PATH=$PATH:$out/share/inferno/Linux/386/bin
+    mkdir -p $out/share/inferno
+    cp -r . $out/share/inferno
+    ./makemk.sh
+    mk nuke
+    mk
+  '';
+
+  installPhase = ''
+    mk install
+    mkdir -p $out/bin
+    makeWrapper $out/share/inferno/Linux/386/bin/emu $out/bin/emu \
+      --suffix LD_LIBRARY_PATH ':' "${gcc46.gcc}/lib" \
+      --suffix PATH ':' "$out/share/inferno/Linux/386/bin"
+    makeWrapper $infernoWrapper $out/bin/inferno \
+      --suffix LD_LIBRARY_PATH ':' "${gcc46.gcc}/lib" \
+      --suffix PATH ':' "$out/share/inferno/Linux/386/bin" \
+      --set INFERNO_ROOT "$out/share/inferno"
+  '';
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "A compact distributed operating system for building cross-platform distributed systems";
+    homepage = "http://inferno-os.org/";
+    license = stdenv.lib.licenses.gpl2;
+    maintainer = [ "Chris Double <chris.double@double.co.nz>" ];
+    platforms = with stdenv.lib.platforms; linux;
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/inferno/inferno b/pkgs/applications/inferno/inferno
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..6eb6da8861a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/inferno/inferno
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#! /usr/bin/env bash
+
+
+export INFERNO_HOME="$HOME/.local/share/inferno"
+if [ -n "$XDG_DATA_HOME" ]
+  then export INFERNO_HOME="$XDG_DATA_HOME/inferno"
+fi
+
+if [ ! -d $INFERNO_HOME ]; then
+  mkdir -p $INFERNO_HOME
+fi
+
+if [ ! -d $INFERNO_HOME/tmp ]; then
+  mkdir -p $INFERNO_HOME/tmp
+fi
+
+for d in $INFERNO_HOME/{acme,appl,dis,lib,man,module,usr/inferno}; do
+  if [ ! -d $d ]; then
+    mkdir -p $d
+    cp --no-preserve=all -r $INFERNO_ROOT/${d#$INFERNO_HOME/}/* $d/
+    chmod -R +w $d
+  fi
+done
+
+if [ ! -d $INFERNO_HOME/usr/$USER ]; then
+  mkdir -p $INFERNO_HOME/usr/$USER
+  cp -r $INFERNO_ROOT/usr/inferno/* $INFERNO_HOME/usr/$USER/
+  chmod -R +w $INFERNO_HOME/usr/$USER
+fi
+
+exec emu "$@" /dis/sh.dis -c "bind -b -c '#U*$INFERNO_HOME/' /; /dis/sh.dis"
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 2e26747004a3..14889c668c8e 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -8912,6 +8912,8 @@ let
     inherit (pythonPackages) pyopengl;
   };
 
+  inferno = callPackage_i686 ../applications/inferno { };
+
   inkscape = callPackage ../applications/graphics/inkscape {
     inherit (pythonPackages) lxml;
     lcms = lcms2;