diff --git a/pkgs/tools/system/efivar/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/system/efivar/default.nix
index b4da2044f694..29ce0b1d8972 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/system/efivar/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/system/efivar/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, pkgconfig, popt }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, fetchFromGitHub, pkgconfig, popt }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "efivar-${version}";
@@ -11,6 +11,14 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "1fdqi053v335pjwj1i3yi9f1kasdzg3agfcp36bxsbhqjp4imlid";
   };
 
+  patches = [
+    # fix problem with linux 4.4 headers https://github.com/rhinstaller/efivar/issues/37
+    (fetchurl {
+      url = https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/plain/sys-libs/efivar/files/0.21-nvme_ioctl.h.patch;
+      sha256 = "1rjjpd4s1xdsnhq974j5wnwav8pfvd0jbvhk8a9wc2w029fvj7zp";
+    })
+  ];
+
   nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ];
   buildInputs = [ popt ];