diff --git a/pkgs/tools/compression/bzip2/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/compression/bzip2/default.nix
index d3ed5121ba98..f46ddd1c5369 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/compression/bzip2/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/compression/bzip2/default.nix
@@ -1,103 +1,33 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, libtool, autoconf, automake, gnum4, linkStatic ? false }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl
+, linkStatic ? (stdenv.system == "i686-cygwin")
+}:
 
-let
-  version = "1.0.6";
-
-  sharedLibrary = !(stdenv ? isStatic)
-               && stdenv.system != "i686-cygwin" && !linkStatic;
-
-  darwinMakefile = fetchurl {
-    url    = "https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/proj/prefix.git/plain/app-arch/bzip2/files/bzip2-1.0.6-Makefile-libbz2_dylib";
-    sha256 = "1lq6g98kfpwv2f7wn4sk8hzcf87dwf92gviq0b4691f5bvc9mawz";
-  };
-in stdenv.mkDerivation {
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "bzip2-${version}";
+  version = "1.0.6.0.1";
 
+  /* We use versions patched to use autotools style properly,
+      saving lots of trouble. */
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = "http://www.bzip.org/${version}/bzip2-${version}.tar.gz";
-    sha256 = "1kfrc7f0ja9fdn6j1y6yir6li818npy6217hvr3wzmnmzhs8z152";
+    urls = map
+      (prefix: prefix + "/people/sbrabec/bzip2/tarballs/${name}.tar.gz")
+      [
+        "http://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/suse"
+        "ftp://ftp.hs.uni-hamburg.de/pub/mirrors/suse"
+        "ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/pub/linux/suse"
+        "http://ftp.suse.com/pub" # the original patched version but slow
+      ];
+    sha256 = "0b5b5p8c7bslc6fslcr1nj9136412v3qcvbg6yxi9argq9g72v8c";
   };
 
-  crossAttrs = {
-    buildInputs = [ libtool autoconf automake gnum4 ];
-    patches = [
-      # original upstream for the autoconf patch is here:
-      # http://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/sbrabec/bzip2/for_downstream/bzip2-1.0.6-autoconfiscated.patch
-      # but we get the mingw-builds version of the patch, which fixes
-      # a few more issues
-      (fetchurl {
-        url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/niXman/mingw-builds/17ae841dcf6e72badad7941a06d631edaf687436/patches/bzip2/bzip2-1.0.6-autoconfiscated.patch";
-        sha256 = "1flbd3i8vg9kzq0a712qcg9j2c4ymnqvgd0ldyafpzvbqj1iicnp";
-      })
-    ];
-    patchFlags = "-p0";
-    postPatch = ''
-      sed -i -e '/<sys\\stat\.h>/s|\\|/|' bzip2.c
-    '';
-    preConfigure = "sh ./autogen.sh";
-  };
-
-  outputs = [ "dev" "bin" "static" ] ++ stdenv.lib.optional sharedLibrary "out";
-
-  preBuild = stdenv.lib.optionalString sharedLibrary ''
-    make -f ${if stdenv.isDarwin then "Makefile-libbz2_dylib" else "Makefile-libbz2_so"}
-  '';
-
-  preInstall = stdenv.lib.optionalString
-    (sharedLibrary && stdenv.cross.libc or null != "msvcrt")
-    (if !stdenv.isDarwin then ''
-      mkdir -p $out/lib
-      mv libbz2.so* $out/lib
-      ( cd $out/lib &&
-        ln -s libbz2.so.1.0.? libbz2.so &&
-        ln -s libbz2.so.1.0.? libbz2.so.1
-      )
-    '' else ''
-      mkdir -p $out/lib
-      mv libbz2.*.dylib $out/lib
-      ( cd $out/lib &&
-        ln -s libbz2.1.0.?.dylib libbz2.dylib &&
-        ln -s libbz2.1.0.?.dylib libbz2.1.dylib
-      )
-    '');
-
-  installFlags = [ "PREFIX=$(bin)" ];
-
-  postInstall = ''
-    rm $bin/bin/bunzip2* $bin/bin/bzcat*
-    ln -s bzip2 $bin/bin/bunzip2
-    ln -s bzip2 $bin/bin/bzcat
-
-  ''
-    + (if stdenv.cross.libc or null != "msvcrt" # mingw TODO: avoided rebuilds for now
-      then ''
-        mkdir "$static"
-        mv "$bin/lib" "$static/"
-      ''
-      else ''
-        moveToOutput "lib/*.a" "$static"
-        moveToOutput "lib/*.dll.a" "$out"
-        mkdir -p "$static" # empty for now, but we want to avoid failure
-      '')
-    ;
-
   postPatch = ''
-    substituteInPlace Makefile --replace CC=gcc CC=cc
-    substituteInPlace Makefile-libbz2_so --replace CC=gcc CC=cc
-  '' + stdenv.lib.optionalString stdenv.isDarwin ''
-    cp ${darwinMakefile} Makefile-libbz2_dylib
-    substituteInPlace Makefile-libbz2_dylib \
-      --replace "CC=gcc" "CC=cc" \
-      --replace "PREFIX=/usr" "PREFIX=$out"
+    sed -i -e '/<sys\\stat\.h>/s|\\|/|' bzip2.c
   '';
 
-  preConfigure = ''
-    substituteInPlace Makefile --replace '$(PREFIX)/man' '$(PREFIX)/share/man'
-  '';
+  outputs = [ "dev" "bin" "out" "man" ];
 
-  makeFlags = stdenv.lib.optional linkStatic "LDFLAGS=-static";
-
-  inherit linkStatic;
+  configureFlags =
+    stdenv.lib.optionals linkStatic [ "--enable-static" "--disable-shared" ];
 
   meta = {
     homepage = "http://www.bzip.org";