diff --git a/pkgs/tools/X11/xpra/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/X11/xpra/default.nix
index 915144daa908..4df793c5b166 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/X11/xpra/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/X11/xpra/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-{ stdenv, lib, fetchurl, callPackage, python2Packages, pkgconfig
-, xorg, gtk2, glib, pango, cairo, gdk_pixbuf, atk
-, makeWrapper, xorgserver, getopt, xauth, utillinux, which
+{ stdenv, lib, fetchurl, callPackage, substituteAll, python3, pkgconfig
+, xorg, gtk3, glib, pango, cairo, gdk_pixbuf, atk
+, wrapGAppsHook, xorgserver, getopt, xauth, utillinux, which
 , ffmpeg, x264, libvpx, libwebp
 , libfakeXinerama
 , gst_all_1, pulseaudio, gobjectIntrospection
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 with lib;
 
 let
-  inherit (python2Packages) cython buildPythonApplication;
+  inherit (python3.pkgs) cython buildPythonApplication;
 
   xf86videodummy = callPackage ./xf86videodummy { };
 in buildPythonApplication rec {
@@ -21,7 +21,14 @@ in buildPythonApplication rec {
     sha256 = "1azvvddjfq7lb5kmbn0ilgq2nf7pmymsc3b9lhbjld6w156qdv01";
   };
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ];
+  patches = [
+    (substituteAll {
+      src = ./fix-paths.patch;
+      inherit (xorg) xkeyboardconfig;
+    })
+  ];
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig gobjectIntrospection wrapGAppsHook ];
   buildInputs = [
     cython
 
@@ -30,11 +37,10 @@ in buildPythonApplication rec {
     xorg.xproto xorg.fixesproto xorg.libXtst xorg.libXfixes xorg.libXcomposite xorg.libXdamage
     xorg.libXrandr xorg.libxkbfile
 
-    pango cairo gdk_pixbuf atk gtk2 glib
+    pango cairo gdk_pixbuf atk gtk3 glib
 
     ffmpeg libvpx x264 libwebp
 
-    gobjectIntrospection
     gst_all_1.gstreamer
     gst_all_1.gst-plugins-base
     gst_all_1.gst-plugins-good
@@ -42,38 +48,34 @@ in buildPythonApplication rec {
     gst_all_1.gst-libav
 
     pam
-
-    makeWrapper
   ];
 
-  propagatedBuildInputs = with python2Packages; [
-    pillow pygtk pygobject2 rencode pycrypto cryptography pycups lz4 dbus-python
-    netifaces numpy websockify pygobject3 gst-python pam
+  propagatedBuildInputs = with python3.pkgs; [
+    pillow rencode pycrypto cryptography pycups lz4 dbus-python
+    netifaces numpy websockify pygobject3 pycairo gst-python pam
   ];
 
-  preBuild = ''
-    export NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE="$NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE $(pkg-config --cflags gtk+-2.0) $(pkg-config --cflags pygtk-2.0) $(pkg-config --cflags xtst)"
-    substituteInPlace xpra/server/auth/pam_auth.py --replace "/lib/libpam.so.1" "${pam}/lib/libpam.so"
-    substituteInPlace xpra/x11/bindings/keyboard_bindings.pyx --replace "/usr/share/X11/xkb" "${xorg.xkeyboardconfig}/share/X11/xkb"
-  '';
-  setupPyBuildFlags = ["--with-Xdummy" "--without-strict"];
+  NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE = [
+    # error: 'import_cairo' defined but not used
+    "-Wno-error=unused-function"
+  ];
 
-  postInstall = ''
-    wrapProgram $out/bin/xpra \
-      --set XPRA_INSTALL_PREFIX "$out" \
-      --set GI_TYPELIB_PATH "$GI_TYPELIB_PATH" \
-      --set GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH_1_0 "$GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH_1_0" \
-      --prefix LD_LIBRARY_PATH : ${libfakeXinerama}/lib  \
+  setupPyBuildFlags = [
+    "--with-Xdummy"
+    "--without-strict"
+    "--with-gtk3"
+    "--without-gtk2"
+  ];
+
+  preFixup = ''
+    gappsWrapperArgs+=(
+      --set XPRA_INSTALL_PREFIX "$out"
+      --prefix LD_LIBRARY_PATH : ${libfakeXinerama}/lib
       --prefix PATH : ${stdenv.lib.makeBinPath [ getopt xorgserver xauth which utillinux pulseaudio ]}
+    )
   '';
 
-  preCheck = "exit 0";
-
-  #TODO: replace postInstall with postFixup to avoid double wrapping of xpra; needs more work though
-  #postFixup = ''
-  #  sed -i '3iexport FONTCONFIG_FILE="${fontsConf}"' $out/bin/xpra
-  #  sed -i '4iexport PATH=${stdenv.lib.makeBinPath [ getopt xorgserver xauth which utillinux ]}\${PATH:+:}\$PATH' $out/bin/xpra
-  #'';
+  doCheck = false;
 
   passthru = { inherit xf86videodummy; };
 
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/X11/xpra/fix-paths.patch b/pkgs/tools/X11/xpra/fix-paths.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c50ec28c35e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/tools/X11/xpra/fix-paths.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+--- a/setup.py
++++ b/setup.py
+@@ -1885,7 +1885,7 @@
+     if OSX:
+         pycairo = "py3cairo"
+     else:
+-        pycairo = "pycairo"
++        pycairo = "py3cairo"
+     cython_add(Extension("xpra.client.gtk3.cairo_workaround",
+                 ["xpra/client/gtk3/cairo_workaround.pyx"],
+                 **pkgconfig(pycairo)
+--- a/xpra/client/gtk3/cairo_workaround.pyx
++++ b/xpra/client/gtk3/cairo_workaround.pyx
+@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@
+     void cairo_surface_flush (cairo_surface_t *surface)
+     void cairo_surface_mark_dirty (cairo_surface_t *surface)
+ 
+-cdef extern from "pycairo/pycairo.h":
++cdef extern from "py3cairo.h":
+     ctypedef struct Pycairo_CAPI_t:
+         pass
+     ctypedef struct PycairoSurface:
+--- a/xpra/x11/bindings/keyboard_bindings.pyx
++++ b/xpra/x11/bindings/keyboard_bindings.pyx
+@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
+ 
+ DEF PATH_MAX = 1024
+ DEF DFLT_XKB_RULES_FILE = "base"
+-DEF DFLT_XKB_CONFIG_ROOT = "/usr/share/X11/xkb"
++DEF DFLT_XKB_CONFIG_ROOT = "@xkeyboardconfig@/share/X11/xkb"
+ 
+ ###################################
+ # Headers, python magic