diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/xapian/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/xapian/default.nix
index e461ce858cfd..145ebdec8e5d 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/xapian/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/xapian/default.nix
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, libuuid, zlib }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, autoreconfHook
+, libuuid, zlib }:
 
 let
   generic = version: sha256: stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     name = "xapian-${version}";
+    passthru = { inherit version; };
 
     src = fetchurl {
       url = "http://oligarchy.co.uk/xapian/${version}/xapian-core-${version}.tar.xz";
@@ -12,17 +14,20 @@ let
     outputs = [ "out" "doc" ];
 
     buildInputs = [ libuuid zlib ];
+    nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook ];
 
-    meta = {
+    doCheck = true;
+
+    meta = with stdenv.lib; {
       description = "Search engine library";
       homepage = http://xapian.org/;
-      license = stdenv.lib.licenses.gpl2Plus;
-      maintainers = [ stdenv.lib.maintainers.chaoflow ];
-      platforms = stdenv.lib.platforms.unix;
+      license = licenses.gpl2Plus;
+      maintainers = with maintainers; [ chaoflow ];
+      platforms = platforms.unix;
     };
   };
 in {
-  # used by xapian-ruby
+  # xapian-ruby needs 1.2.22 as of 2017-05-06
   xapian_1_2_22 = generic "1.2.22" "0zsji22n0s7cdnbgj0kpil05a6bgm5cfv0mvx12d8ydg7z58g6r6";
-  xapian_1_4_0 = generic "1.4.0" "0xv4da5rmqqzkkkzx2v3jwh5hz5zxhd2b7m8x30fk99a25blyn0h";
+  xapian_1_4_4 = generic "1.4.4" "1n9j2w2as0flih3hgim7gprfxsx6gimijs91rxsjsi8shjlqbad6";
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/xapian/tools/omega/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/xapian/tools/omega/default.nix
index 7c64c2e90d4e..2923bfc1fc68 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/xapian/tools/omega/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/xapian/tools/omega/default.nix
@@ -2,14 +2,15 @@
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "xapian-omega-${version}";
-  version = (builtins.parseDrvName xapian.name).version;
+  inherit (xapian) version;
 
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "http://oligarchy.co.uk/xapian/${version}/xapian-omega-${version}.tar.xz";
-    sha256 = "07s341m1csk4v7mc44mqrzc1nxpnmdkji9k1cirbx6q0nlshdz0h";
+    sha256 = "0pl9gs0sbavxykfgrkm8syswqnfynmmqhf8429bv8a5qjh5pkp8l";
   };
 
-  buildInputs = [ pkgconfig xapian perl pcre zlib libmagic ];
+  buildInputs = [ xapian perl pcre zlib libmagic ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ];
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     description = "Indexer and CGI search front-end built on Xapian library";
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index e17fa7545f7f..1ccfed6d8d73 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -10311,8 +10311,8 @@ with pkgs;
   x265 = callPackage ../development/libraries/x265 { };
 
   inherit (callPackages ../development/libraries/xapian { })
-    xapian_1_2_22 xapian_1_4_0;
-  xapian = xapian_1_4_0;
+    xapian_1_2_22 xapian_1_4_4;
+  xapian = xapian_1_4_4;
 
   xapian-omega = callPackage ../development/libraries/xapian/tools/omega {
     libmagic = file;