diff --git a/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix b/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix
index cbfa0c45e8fc..91a894906cc7 100644
--- a/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix
@@ -11,11 +11,11 @@
     diff -u "''${nixpkgsTlpdbNix}" "''${tlpdbNix}" | tee "$out/tlpdb.nix.patch"
   '';
 
-  luaotfload-fonts = runCommand "texlive-test-lualatex" {
+  opentype-fonts = runCommand "texlive-test-opentype" {
     nativeBuildInputs = [
       (with texlive; combine { inherit scheme-medium libertinus-fonts; })
     ];
-    input = builtins.toFile "lualatex-testfile.tex" ''
+    input = builtins.toFile "opentype-testfile.tex" ''
       \documentclass{article}
       \usepackage{fontspec}
       \setmainfont{Libertinus Serif}
@@ -26,7 +26,13 @@
   }
   ''
     export HOME="$(mktemp -d)"
+    # We use the same testfile to test two completely different
+    # font discovery mechanisms, both of which were once broken:
+    #  - lualatex uses its own luaotfload script (#220228)
+    #  - xelatex uses fontconfig (#228196)
+    # both of the following two commands need to succeed.
     lualatex -halt-on-error "$input"
+    xelatex -halt-on-error "$input"
     echo success > $out
   '';
 
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/combine.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/combine.nix
index 9ccd2cfe7614..7868842cbee5 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/combine.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/combine.nix
@@ -82,8 +82,12 @@ in (buildEnv {
   nativeBuildInputs = [ makeWrapper libfaketime perl bin.texlinks ];
   buildInputs = pkgList.extraInputs;
 
-  # This is set primarily to help find-tarballs.nix to do its job
-  passthru.packages = pkgList.all;
+  passthru = {
+    # This is set primarily to help find-tarballs.nix to do its job
+    packages = pkgList.all;
+    # useful for inclusion in the `fonts.fonts` nixos option or for use in devshells
+    fonts = "${texmfroot}/texmf-dist/fonts";
+  };
 
   postBuild = ''
     TEXMFROOT="${texmfroot}"
@@ -196,7 +200,11 @@ in (buildEnv {
       makeWrapper "$target" "$link" \
         --prefix PATH : "${gnused}/bin:${gnugrep}/bin:${coreutils}/bin:$out/bin:${perl}/bin" \
         --prefix PERL5LIB : "$PERL5LIB" \
-        --set-default TEXMFCNF "$TEXMFCNF"
+        --set-default TEXMFCNF "$TEXMFCNF" \
+        --set-default FONTCONFIG_FILE "${
+          # neccessary for XeTeX to find the fonts distributed with texlive
+          makeFontsConf { fontDirectories = [ "${texmfroot}/texmf-dist/fonts" ]; }
+        }"
 
       # avoid using non-nix shebang in $target by calling interpreter
       if [[ "$(head -c 2 "$target")" = "#!" ]]; then
@@ -311,5 +319,3 @@ in (buildEnv {
   ''
   ;
 }).overrideAttrs (_: { allowSubstitutes = true; })
-# TODO: make TeX fonts visible by fontconfig: it should be enough to install an appropriate file
-#       similarly, deal with xe(la)tex font visibility?
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
index cbdedc9310c3..e46f6425b497 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 { stdenv, lib, fetchurl, runCommand, writeText, buildEnv
 , callPackage, ghostscript_headless, harfbuzz
 , makeWrapper, python3, ruby, perl, gnused, gnugrep, coreutils
-, libfaketime
+, libfaketime, makeFontsConf
 , useFixedHashes ? true
 , recurseIntoAttrs
 }:
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ let
   # function for creating a working environment from a set of TL packages
   combine = import ./combine.nix {
     inherit bin combinePkgs buildEnv lib makeWrapper writeText
-      stdenv python3 ruby perl gnused gnugrep coreutils libfaketime;
+      stdenv python3 ruby perl gnused gnugrep coreutils libfaketime makeFontsConf;
     ghostscript = ghostscript_headless;
   };