diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/distro/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/distro/default.nix
index b444e19d84bc..cee4e6deb38a 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/distro/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/distro/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchPypi, buildPythonPackage, pytest, pytestcov }:
+{ stdenv, fetchPypi, buildPythonPackage }:
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
   pname = "distro";
@@ -9,15 +9,10 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     sha256 = "0e58756ae38fbd8fc3020d54badb8eae17c5b9dcbed388b17bb55b8a5928df92";
   };
 
-  # TODO: Enable more tests on NixOS (20 out of 173 are failing, 10 due to the
-  # missing lsb_release binary):
-  patches = [ ./nixos.patch ];
+  # tests are very targeted at individual linux distributions
+  doCheck = false;
 
-  checkInputs = [ pytest pytestcov ];
-
-  checkPhase = ''
-    py.test
-  '';
+  pythonImportcheck = [ "distro" ];
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     homepage = "https://github.com/nir0s/distro";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/distro/nixos.patch b/pkgs/development/python-modules/distro/nixos.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 21aa4827b635..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/distro/nixos.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,31 +0,0 @@
-diff --git a/tests/test_distro.py b/tests/test_distro.py
-index 5521068..4e1bab8 100644
---- a/tests/test_distro.py
-+++ b/tests/test_distro.py
-@@ -432,7 +432,7 @@ class TestOSRelease:
-         self._test_outcome(desired_outcome)
- 
- 
--@pytest.mark.skipif(not IS_LINUX, reason='Irrelevant on non-linux')
-+@pytest.mark.skip(reason='lsb_release is not available and would return exit code 3')
- class TestLSBRelease(DistroTestCase):
- 
-     def setup_method(self, test_method):
-@@ -919,7 +919,7 @@ class TestDistroRelease:
-         self._test_outcome(desired_outcome, 'cloudlinux', '7', 'redhat')
- 
- 
--@pytest.mark.skipif(not IS_LINUX, reason='Irrelevant on non-linux')
-+@pytest.mark.skip(reason='Unknown (TODO)')
- class TestOverall(DistroTestCase):
-     """Test a LinuxDistribution object created with default arguments.
- 
-@@ -1618,7 +1618,7 @@ def _bad_os_listdir(path='.'):
-     raise OSError()
- 
- 
--@pytest.mark.skipIf(not IS_LINUX, reason='Irrelevant on non-linx')
-+@pytest.mark.skip(reason='Unknown (TODO)')
- class TestOverallWithEtcNotReadable(TestOverall):
-     def setup_method(self, test_method):
-         self._old_listdir = os.listdir