diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/gtk-libs/2.16/glib/2.21.4.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/gtk-libs/2.16/glib/2.21.4.nix
index 86934bc94d15..aec37961ca38 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/gtk-libs/2.16/glib/2.21.4.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/gtk-libs/2.16/glib/2.21.4.nix
@@ -2,14 +2,19 @@ args: with args;
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "glib-2.21.4";
-  
+
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "mirror://gnome/sources/glib/2.21/${name}.tar.bz2";
     sha256 = "b772e4bdf1b28dd23cdb4c4d7f1d219ddb748226d0207e57c75992bf0100182d";
   };
-  
+
   buildInputs = [pkgconfig gettext perl];
 
+  # The nbd package depends on a static version of this library; hence
+  # the default configure flag --disable-static is switched off.
+  dontDisableStatic = true;
+  configureFlags = "--enable-static --enable-shared";
+
   meta = {
     description = "GLib, a C library of programming buildings blocks";
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/gtk-libs/2.16/glib/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/gtk-libs/2.16/glib/default.nix
index a657ae322277..7235ff09831e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/gtk-libs/2.16/glib/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/gtk-libs/2.16/glib/default.nix
@@ -10,15 +10,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   buildInputs = [pkgconfig gettext perl];
 
-  # TODO: The setup script adds --disable-static to ./configure by
-  # default. The nbd-server, however, would like to link this library
-  # statically (so that nbd-server can itself be a static binary). I
-  # have no clue how to solve it properly, but a solution that would
-  # work is this one:
-  #
-  # configureFlags = "--enable-static";
-  #
-  # There has to be a better way?
+  # The nbd package depends on a static version of this library; hence
+  # the default configure flag --disable-static is switched off.
+  dontDisableStatic = true;
+  configureFlags = "--enable-static --enable-shared";
 
   meta = {
     description = "GLib, a C library of programming buildings blocks";