diff --git a/pkgs/tools/system/collectd/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/system/collectd/default.nix
index c76a1a136771..0dd587bf551e 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/system/collectd/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/system/collectd/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,29 @@
-{stdenv, fetchurl }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl
+# optional:
+, pkgconfig ? null  # most of the extra deps need pkgconfig to be found
+, curl ? null
+, iptables ? null
+, libcredis ? null
+, libdbi ? null
+, libgcrypt ? null
+, libmemcached ? null, cyrus_sasl ? null
+, libmodbus ? null
+, libnotify ? null, gdk_pixbuf ? null
+, liboping ? null
+, libpcap ? null
+, libsigrok ? null
+, libvirt ? null
+, libxml2 ? null
+, lm_sensors ? null
+, lvm2 ? null
+, mysql ? null
+, postgresql ? null
+, protobufc ? null
+, rabbitmq-c ? null
+, rrdtool ? null
+, varnish ? null
+, yajl ? null
+}:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "collectd-5.4.1";
@@ -10,6 +35,16 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   NIX_LDFLAGS = "-lgcc_s"; # for pthread_cancel
 
+  buildInputs = [
+    pkgconfig curl iptables libcredis libdbi libgcrypt libmemcached cyrus_sasl
+    libmodbus libnotify gdk_pixbuf liboping libpcap libsigrok libvirt
+    lm_sensors libxml2 lvm2 mysql postgresql protobufc rabbitmq-c rrdtool
+    varnish yajl
+  ];
+
+  # for some reason libsigrok isn't auto-detected
+  configureFlags = stdenv.lib.optional (libsigrok != null) "--with-libsigrok";
+
   meta = {
     homepage = http://collectd.org;
     description = "collectd is a daemon which collects system performance statistics periodically";