diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/ilmbase/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/ilmbase/default.nix
index 4ea16a59e8b4..9d2479c2e0b3 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/ilmbase/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/ilmbase/default.nix
@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
-{ stdenv, lib, buildPackages, automake, autoconf, libtool, which,
-  fetchpatch, openexr }:
+{ stdenv
+, buildPackages
+, cmake
+, libtool
+, openexr
+}:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "ilmbase";
-  version = lib.getVersion openexr;
+  version = stdenv.lib.getVersion openexr;
 
   # the project no longer provides separate tarballs. We may even want to merge
   # the ilmbase package into openexr in the future.
@@ -13,19 +17,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   outputs = [ "out" "dev" ];
 
-  preConfigure = ''
-    patchShebangs ./bootstrap
-    ./bootstrap
-  '';
-
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ cmake libtool ];
   depsBuildBuild = [ buildPackages.stdenv.cc ];
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ automake autoconf libtool which ];
 
-  NIX_CFLAGS_LINK = "-pthread";
-
-  patches = [
-    ./cross.patch
-  ];
+  patches = [ ./cross.patch ];
 
   # fails 1 out of 1 tests with
   # "lt-ImathTest: testBoxAlgo.cpp:892: void {anonymous}::boxMatrixTransform(): Assertion `b21 == b2' failed"
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/openexr/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/openexr/default.nix
index da8fb4294650..425afc70f37c 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/openexr/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/openexr/default.nix
@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, buildPackages, fetchFromGitHub, autoconf, automake, libtool, pkgconfig,
-  zlib, ilmbase, fetchpatch }:
-
-let
-  # Doesn't really do anything when not crosscompiling
-  emulator = stdenv.hostPlatform.emulator buildPackages;
-in
-
+{ lib
+, stdenv
+, buildPackages
+, fetchFromGitHub
+, zlib
+, ilmbase
+, fetchpatch 
+, cmake
+, libtool
+}:
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "openexr";
   version = "2.4.1";
@@ -17,36 +19,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "020gyl8zv83ag6gbcchmqiyx9rh2jca7j8n52zx1gk4rck7kwc01";
   };
 
-  sourceRoot = "source/OpenEXR";
-
   outputs = [ "bin" "dev" "out" "doc" ];
-
-  # Needed because there are some generated sources. Solution: just run them under QEMU.
-  postPatch = ''
-    for file in b44ExpLogTable dwaLookups
-    do
-      # Ecape for both sh and Automake
-      emu=${lib.escapeShellArg (lib.replaceStrings ["$"] ["$$"] emulator)}
-      before="./$file > $file.h"
-      after="$emu $before"
-      substituteInPlace IlmImf/Makefile.am \
-        --replace "$before" "$after"
-    done
-
-    # Make sure the patch succeeded
-    [[ $(grep "$emu" IlmImf/Makefile.am | wc -l) = 2 ]]
-  '';
-
-  preConfigure = ''
-    patchShebangs ./bootstrap
-    ./bootstrap
-  '';
-
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig autoconf automake libtool ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ cmake libtool ];
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ ilmbase zlib ];
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
-  doCheck = false; # fails 1 of 1 tests
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     description = "A high dynamic-range (HDR) image file format";