diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/hardware/irqbalance.nix b/nixos/modules/services/hardware/irqbalance.nix
index b139154432cf..c79e0eb83ece 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/hardware/irqbalance.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/hardware/irqbalance.nix
@@ -13,18 +13,12 @@ in
 
   config = mkIf cfg.enable {
 
-    systemd.services = {
-      irqbalance = {
-        description = "irqbalance daemon";
-        path = [ pkgs.irqbalance ];
-        serviceConfig =
-          { ExecStart = "${pkgs.irqbalance}/bin/irqbalance --foreground"; };
-        wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
-      };
-    };
-
     environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.irqbalance ];
 
+    systemd.services.irqbalance.wantedBy = ["multi-user.target"];
+
+    systemd.packages = [ pkgs.irqbalance ];
+
   };
 
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/irqbalance/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/irqbalance/default.nix
index 8dc9e2694d47..27f176f6a724 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/irqbalance/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/irqbalance/default.nix
@@ -16,6 +16,16 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   LDFLAGS = "-lncurses";
 
+  postInstall =
+    ''
+      # Systemd service
+      mkdir -p $out/lib/systemd/system
+      grep -vi "EnvironmentFile" misc/irqbalance.service >$out/lib/systemd/system/irqbalance.service
+      substituteInPlace $out/lib/systemd/system/irqbalance.service \
+        --replace /usr/sbin/irqbalance $out/bin/irqbalance \
+        --replace ' $IRQBALANCE_ARGS' ""
+    '';
+
   meta = {
     homepage = https://github.com/Irqbalance/irqbalance;
     description = "A daemon to help balance the cpu load generated by interrupts across all of a systems cpus";