diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libvterm-neovim/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libvterm-neovim/default.nix
index 1f1973b10274..ca16063cca6b 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libvterm-neovim/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libvterm-neovim/default.nix
@@ -17,8 +17,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [ perl libtool ];
 
-  makeFlags = [ "PREFIX=$(out)" ]
-    ++ lib.optional stdenv.isDarwin "LIBTOOL=${libtool}/bin/libtool";
+  makeFlags = [
+    "CC=${stdenv.cc.targetPrefix}cc"
+    "LIBTOOL=${libtool}/bin/libtool"
+    "PREFIX=$(out)"
+  ];
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libvterm/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libvterm/default.nix
index 066dcb4f34f4..f1e217f2b3e5 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libvterm/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libvterm/default.nix
@@ -9,17 +9,26 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "10gaqygmmwp0cwk3j8qflri5caf8vl3f7pwfl2svw5whv8wkn0k2";
   };
 
-  patchPhase = ''
-    sed -i -e s@/usr@$out@ -e /ldconfig/d Makefile
+  preInstall = ''
+    mkdir -p $out/include $out/lib
   '';
 
-  preInstall = ''
-    mkdir -p $out/include
-    mkdir -p $out/lib
+  postPatch = ''
+    substituteInPlace Makefile \
+      --replace "gcc" "${stdenv.cc.targetPrefix}cc" \
+      --replace "ldconfig" "" \
+      --replace "/usr" "$out"
+
+    makeFlagsArray+=("PKG_CFG=`${stdenv.cc.targetPrefix}pkg-config --cflags glib-2.0`")
   '';
 
+  # For headers
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ glib ];
+
+  strictDeps = true;
+
   nativeBuildInputs = [ pkg-config ];
-  buildInputs = [ glib ncurses ];
+  buildInputs = [ ncurses ];
 
   meta = with lib; {
     homepage = "http://libvterm.sourceforge.net/";