diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/spidermonkey/185-1.0.0.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/spidermonkey/185-1.0.0.nix
index 1c0d77345b73..30aec0c2790c 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/spidermonkey/185-1.0.0.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/spidermonkey/185-1.0.0.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, pkgconfig, autoconf213, nspr, perl, python, readline, zip }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, pkgconfig, nspr, perl, python, readline, zip }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   version = "185-1.0.0";
@@ -11,21 +11,28 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ nspr ];
 
-  buildInputs = [ pkgconfig autoconf213 perl python readline zip ];
+  buildInputs = [ pkgconfig perl python readline zip ];
 
   postUnpack = "sourceRoot=\${sourceRoot}/js/src";
 
   preConfigure = ''
     export NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE="$NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE -I${nspr}/include/nspr"
     export LIBXUL_DIST=$out
-    autoconf
   '';
 
-  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
-      description = "Mozilla's JavaScript engine written in C/C++";
-      homepage = https://developer.mozilla.org/en/SpiderMonkey;
-      # TODO: MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license.
-      maintainers = [ maintainers.goibhniu ];
-  };
+  configureFlags = [ "--enable-threadsafe" "--with-system-nspr" ];
 
+  # hack around a make problem, see https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/1279#issuecomment-29547393
+  preBuild = "touch -- {.,shell,jsapi-tests}/{-lpthread,-ldl}";
+
+  doCheck = true;
+  preCheck = "rm jit-test/tests/sunspider/check-date-format-tofte.js"; # https://bugzil.la/600522
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    description = "Mozilla's JavaScript engine written in C/C++";
+    homepage = https://developer.mozilla.org/en/SpiderMonkey;
+    # TODO: MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license.
+    maintainers = [ maintainers.goibhniu ];
+  };
 }
+