diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/distributed/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/distributed/default.nix
index f4be407fade2..372b931bca27 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/distributed/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/distributed/default.nix
@@ -1,11 +1,6 @@
 { lib
 , buildPythonPackage
 , fetchPypi
-, pytest
-, pytest-repeat
-, pytest-timeout
-, mock
-, joblib
 , click
 , cloudpickle
 , dask
@@ -18,9 +13,6 @@
 , tornado
 , zict
 , pyyaml
-, isPy3k
-, futures
-, singledispatch
 , mpi4py
 , bokeh
 , pythonOlder
@@ -29,6 +21,7 @@
 buildPythonPackage rec {
   pname = "distributed";
   version = "2.30.1";
+  disabled = pythonOlder "3.6";
 
   # get full repository need conftest.py to run tests
   src = fetchPypi {
@@ -36,23 +29,14 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     sha256 = "1421d3b84a0885aeb2c4bdc9e8896729c0f053a9375596c9de8864e055e2ac8e";
   };
 
-  disabled = pythonOlder "3.6";
-
-  checkInputs = [ pytest pytest-repeat pytest-timeout mock joblib ];
   propagatedBuildInputs = [
       click cloudpickle dask msgpack psutil six
       sortedcontainers tblib toolz tornado zict pyyaml mpi4py bokeh
   ];
 
-  # tests take about 10-15 minutes
-  # ignore 5 cli tests out of 1000 total tests that fail due to subprocesses
-  # these tests are not critical to the library (only the cli)
-  checkPhase = ''
-    py.test distributed -m "not avoid-travis" -r s --timeout-method=thread --timeout=0 --durations=20 --ignore="distributed/cli/tests"
-  '';
-
   # when tested random tests would fail and not repeatably
   doCheck = false;
+  pythonImportsCheck = [ "distributed" ];
 
   meta = {
     description = "Distributed computation in Python.";