diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/smpeg/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/smpeg/default.nix
index 7119f76c55fd..35d5075a949a 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/smpeg/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/smpeg/default.nix
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       --prefix PKG_CONFIG_PATH ":" "${SDL.dev}/lib/pkgconfig"
   '';
 
+  NIX_LDFLAGS = [ "-lX11" ];
+
   meta = {
     homepage = http://icculus.org/smpeg/;
     description = "MPEG decoding library";