diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/p2p/mldonkey/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/networking/p2p/mldonkey/default.nix
index fb8cd5bf7197..ff24546291d7 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/networking/p2p/mldonkey/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/p2p/mldonkey/default.nix
@@ -20,6 +20,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     hash = "sha256-Dbb7163CdqHY7/FJY2yWBFRudT+hTFT6fO4sFgt6C/A=";
   };
 
+  patches = [
+    ./gettext-0.25.patch
+  ];
+
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace config/Makefile.in \
       --replace-fail '+camlp4' '${ocamlPackages.camlp4}/lib/ocaml/${ocamlPackages.ocaml.version}/site-lib/camlp4'
@@ -56,6 +60,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     # https://github.com/ygrek/mldonkey/issues/117
     // lib.optionalAttrs stdenv.cc.isClang {
       CXXFLAGS = "-std=c++98";
+    }
+    // lib.optionalAttrs stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin {
+      NIX_LDFLAGS = "-liconv";
     };
 
   meta = {
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/p2p/mldonkey/gettext-0.25.patch b/pkgs/applications/networking/p2p/mldonkey/gettext-0.25.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1c4e6381ed54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/p2p/mldonkey/gettext-0.25.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+diff --git a/config/configure.in b/config/configure.in
+index f2dd838b..e1b5ed47 100644
+--- a/config/configure.in
++++ b/config/configure.in
+@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([Makefile.config.in])
+ AC_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h)
+ AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
+ 
++AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION([0.25])
++AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])
++
+ CONFIGURE_RUN=yes
+ CONFIGURE_ARGUMENTS=$ac_configure_args
+ echo "Arguments to configure: $CONFIGURE_ARGUMENTS"