diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/kernel/modules-closure.nix b/pkgs/build-support/kernel/modules-closure.nix
index cc197edbef19..cad0c7a21f94 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/kernel/modules-closure.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/kernel/modules-closure.nix
@@ -4,12 +4,12 @@
 # Also generate an appropriate modules.dep.
 
 { stdenv, kernel, nukeReferences, rootModules
-, module_init_tools, allowMissing ? false }:
+, kmod, allowMissing ? false }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
   name = kernel.name + "-shrunk";
   builder = ./modules-closure.sh;
   buildInputs = [nukeReferences];
-  inherit kernel rootModules module_init_tools allowMissing;
+  inherit kernel rootModules kmod allowMissing;
   allowedReferences = ["out"];
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/kernel/modules-closure.sh b/pkgs/build-support/kernel/modules-closure.sh
index aa2615eb578d..d0ac88f69247 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/kernel/modules-closure.sh
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/kernel/modules-closure.sh
@@ -2,24 +2,20 @@ source $stdenv/setup
 
 set -o pipefail
 
-PATH=$module_init_tools/sbin:$PATH
+PATH=$kmod/sbin:$PATH
 
 version=$(cd $kernel/lib/modules && ls -d *)
 
 echo "kernel version is $version"
 
-export MODULE_DIR=$(readlink -f $kernel/lib/modules/)
-
 # Determine the dependencies of each root module.
 closure=
 for module in $rootModules; do
     echo "root module: $module"
-    deps=$(modprobe --config /dev/null --set-version "$version" --show-depends "$module" \
+    deps=$(modprobe --config no-config -d $kernel --set-version "$version" --show-depends "$module" \
         | sed 's/^insmod //') \
         || if test -z "$allowMissing"; then exit 1; fi
-    #for i in $deps; do echo $i; done
-    if [[ "$deps" != builtin* ]]
-    then
+    if [[ "$deps" != builtin* ]]; then
         closure="$closure $deps"
     fi
 done
@@ -41,4 +37,4 @@ for module in $closure; do
     echo $target >> $out/insmod-list
 done
 
-MODULE_DIR=$out/lib/modules/ depmod -a $version
+depmod -b $out -a $version
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 2565ef2d87dc..8b36b2f1595f 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -348,10 +348,9 @@ let
 
   makeWrapper = makeSetupHook { } ../build-support/setup-hooks/make-wrapper.sh;
 
-  makeModulesClosure = {kernel, rootModules, allowMissing ? false}:
+  makeModulesClosure = { kernel, rootModules, allowMissing ? false }:
     import ../build-support/kernel/modules-closure.nix {
-      inherit stdenv module_init_tools kernel nukeReferences
-        rootModules allowMissing;
+      inherit stdenv kmod kernel nukeReferences rootModules allowMissing;
     };
 
   pathsFromGraph = ../build-support/kernel/paths-from-graph.pl;