diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/powertop/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/powertop/default.nix
index 7679262a9899..5ec708dd69fd 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/powertop/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/powertop/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, gettext, libnl, ncurses, pciutils, pkgconfig, zlib }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, fetchpatch, gettext, libnl, ncurses, pciutils, pkgconfig, zlib }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "powertop-${version}";
@@ -14,6 +14,14 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ];
   buildInputs = [ gettext libnl ncurses pciutils zlib ];
 
+  patches = stdenv.lib.optional stdenv.hostPlatform.isMusl (
+    fetchpatch {
+      name = "strerror_r.patch";
+      url = "https://git.alpinelinux.org/cgit/aports/plain/main/powertop/strerror_r.patch?id=3b9214d436f1611f297b01f72469d66bfe729d6e";
+      sha256 = "1kzddhcrb0n2iah4lhgxwwy4mkhq09ch25jjngyq6pdj6pmfkpfw";
+    }
+  );
+
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace src/main.cpp --replace "/sbin/modprobe" "modprobe"
     substituteInPlace src/calibrate/calibrate.cpp --replace "/usr/bin/xset" "xset"