diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/x11/window-managers/i3.nix b/nixos/modules/services/x11/window-managers/i3.nix
index f9c75e80db41..c9b0669e7ba5 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/x11/window-managers/i3.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/x11/window-managers/i3.nix
@@ -36,6 +36,21 @@ in
         i3 package to use.
       '';
     };
+
+    extraPackages = mkOption {
+      type = with types; listOf package;
+      default = with pkgs; [ dmenu i3status i3lock ];
+      example = literalExample ''
+        with pkgs; [
+          dmenu
+          i3status
+          i3lock
+        ]
+      '';
+      description = ''
+        Extra packages to be installed system wide.
+      '';
+    };
   };
 
   config = mkIf cfg.enable {
@@ -50,7 +65,7 @@ in
         waitPID=$!
       '';
     }];
-    environment.systemPackages = [ cfg.package ];
+    environment.systemPackages = [ cfg.package ] ++ cfg.extraPackages;
   };
 
   imports = [
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/window-managers/i3/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/window-managers/i3/default.nix
index fded295b0ef1..df7ba69c5c5f 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/window-managers/i3/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/window-managers/i3/default.nix
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 { fetchurl, stdenv, which, pkgconfig, makeWrapper, libxcb, xcbutilkeysyms
 , xcbutil, xcbutilwm, xcbutilxrm, libstartup_notification, libX11, pcre, libev
 , yajl, xcb-util-cursor, coreutils, perl, pango, perlPackages, libxkbcommon
-, xorgserver, xvfb_run, dmenu, i3status }:
+, xorgserver, xvfb_run }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "i3-${version}";
@@ -30,13 +30,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     patchShebangs .
   '';
 
-  postFixup = ''
-    substituteInPlace $out/etc/i3/config --replace dmenu_run ${dmenu}/bin/dmenu_run
-    substituteInPlace $out/etc/i3/config --replace "status_command i3status" "status_command ${i3status}/bin/i3status"
-    substituteInPlace $out/etc/i3/config.keycodes --replace dmenu_run ${dmenu}/bin/dmenu_run
-    substituteInPlace $out/etc/i3/config.keycodes --replace "status_command i3status" "status_command ${i3status}/bin/i3status"
-  '';
-
   # Tests have been failing (at least for some people in some cases)
   # and have been disabled until someone wants to fix them. Some
   # initial digging uncovers that the tests call out to `git`, which