diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
index 9ad8c2790da6..bdf6f7752777 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/default.nix
@@ -1,10 +1,22 @@
 { stdenv, fetchurl, gfortran, readline, ncurses, perl, flex, texinfo, qhull
-, libX11, graphicsmagick, pcre, liblapack, pkgconfig, mesa, fltk
-, fftw, fftwSinglePrec, zlib, curl, qrupdate
+, libX11, graphicsmagick, pcre, pkgconfig, mesa, fltk
+, fftw, fftwSinglePrec, zlib, curl, qrupdate, openblas
 , qt ? null, qscintilla ? null, ghostscript ? null, llvm ? null, hdf5 ? null,glpk ? null
 , suitesparse ? null, gnuplot ? null, jdk ? null, python ? null
 }:
 
+let
+  suitesparseOrig = suitesparse;
+  qrupdateOrig = qrupdate;
+in
+# integer width is determined by openblas, so all dependencies must be built
+# with exactly the same openblas
+let
+  suitesparse =
+    if suitesparseOrig != null then suitesparseOrig.override { inherit openblas; } else null;
+  qrupdate = if qrupdateOrig != null then qrupdateOrig.override { inherit openblas; } else null;
+in
+
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   version = "4.0.0";
   name = "octave-${version}";
@@ -14,7 +26,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   };
 
   buildInputs = [ gfortran readline ncurses perl flex texinfo qhull libX11
-    graphicsmagick pcre liblapack pkgconfig mesa fltk zlib curl
+    graphicsmagick pcre pkgconfig mesa fltk zlib curl openblas
     fftw fftwSinglePrec qrupdate ]
     ++ (stdenv.lib.optional (qt != null) qt)
     ++ (stdenv.lib.optional (qscintilla != null) qscintilla)
@@ -34,7 +46,13 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   # problems on Hydra
   enableParallelBuilding = false;
 
-  configureFlags = [ "--enable-readline" "--enable-dl" ];
+  configureFlags =
+    [ "--enable-readline"
+      "--enable-dl"
+      "--with-blas=openblas"
+      "--with-lapack=openblas"
+    ]
+    ++ stdenv.lib.optional openblas.blas64 "--enable-64";
 
   # Keep a copy of the octave tests detailed results in the output
   # derivation, because someone may care
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 9f95e32e9511..69c46414c9e3 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -4820,6 +4820,7 @@ let
     glpk = null;
     suitesparse = null;
     jdk = null;
+    openblas = openblasCompat;
   };
   octaveFull = (lowPrio (callPackage ../development/interpreters/octave {
     fltk = fltk13.override { cfg.xftSupport = true; };