diff --git a/pkgs/servers/pulseaudio/default.nix b/pkgs/servers/pulseaudio/default.nix
index ee2c0e0bd1c5..6dc158600fd1 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/pulseaudio/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/pulseaudio/default.nix
@@ -116,6 +116,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     "-Dsysconfdir=/etc"
     "-Dsysconfdir_install=${placeholder "out"}/etc"
     "-Dudevrulesdir=${placeholder "out"}/lib/udev/rules.d"
+
+    # pulseaudio complains if its binary is moved after installation;
+    # this is needed so that wrapGApp can operate *without*
+    # renaming the unwrapped binaries (see below)
+    "--bindir=${placeholder "out"}/.bin-unwrapped"
   ]
   ++ lib.optional (stdenv.isLinux && useSystemd) "-Dsystemduserunitdir=${placeholder "out"}/lib/systemd/user"
   ++ lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [
@@ -133,11 +138,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   postInstall = lib.optionalString libOnly ''
     find $out/share -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 ! -name "vala" -prune -exec rm -r {} \;
     find $out/share/vala -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 ! -name "vapi" -prune -exec rm -r {} \;
-    rm -r $out/{bin,etc,lib/pulse-*}
+    rm -r $out/{.bin-unwrapped,etc,lib/pulse-*}
   ''
     + ''
     moveToOutput lib/cmake "$dev"
-    rm -f $out/bin/qpaeq # this is packaged by the "qpaeq" package now, because of missing deps
+    rm -f $out/.bin-unwrapped/qpaeq # this is packaged by the "qpaeq" package now, because of missing deps
   '';
 
   preFixup = lib.optionalString (stdenv.isLinux  && (stdenv.hostPlatform == stdenv.buildPlatform)) ''
@@ -151,6 +156,15 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       ln -s "''$file" "''${file%.dylib}.so"
       ln -s "''$file" "$out/lib/pulseaudio/''$(basename ''$file .dylib).so"
     done
+  ''
+  # put symlinks to binaries in `$prefix/bin`;
+  # then wrapGApp will *rename these symlinks* instead of
+  # the original binaries in `$prefix/.bin-unwrapped` (see above);
+  # when pulseaudio is looking for its own binary (it does!),
+  # it will be happy to find it in its original installation location
+  + lib.optionalString (!libOnly) ''
+    mkdir -p $out/bin
+    ln -st $out/bin $out/.bin-unwrapped/*
   '';
 
   passthru = {