diff --git a/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix b/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix
index 217a862e1c56..cb607f3a1328 100644
--- a/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,26 @@
 { lib, runCommand, fetchurl, file, texlive, writeShellScript }:
 
 {
+
+  luaotfload-fonts = runCommand "texlive-test-lualatex" {
+    nativeBuildInputs = [
+      (with texlive; combine { inherit scheme-medium libertinus-fonts; })
+    ];
+    input = builtins.toFile "lualatex-testfile.tex" ''
+      \documentclass{article}
+      \usepackage{fontspec}
+      \setmainfont{Libertinus Serif}
+      \begin{document}
+        \LaTeX{} is great
+      \end{document}
+    '';
+  }
+  ''
+    export HOME="$(mktemp -d)"
+    lualatex -halt-on-error "$input"
+    echo success > $out
+  '';
+
   chktex = runCommand "texlive-test-chktex" {
     nativeBuildInputs = [
       (with texlive; combine { inherit scheme-infraonly chktex; })
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix
index 6876e4090074..255c208783f9 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix
@@ -30,6 +30,14 @@ let
       for i in texk/kpathsea/mktex*; do
         sed -i '/^mydir=/d' "$i"
       done
+
+      # ST_NLINK_TRICK causes kpathsea to treat folders with no real subfolders
+      # as leaves, even if they contain symlinks to other folders; must be
+      # disabled to work correctly with the nix store", see section 5.3.6
+      # “Subdirectory expansion” of the kpathsea manual
+      # http://mirrors.ctan.org/systems/doc/kpathsea/kpathsea.pdf for more
+      # details
+      sed -i '/^#define ST_NLINK_TRICK/d' texk/kpathsea/config.h
     '';
 
     configureFlags = [