diff --git a/corepkgs/buildenv.nix b/corepkgs/buildenv.nix
index 641231dd9e..50c9923af7 100644
--- a/corepkgs/buildenv.nix
+++ b/corepkgs/buildenv.nix
@@ -18,4 +18,7 @@ derivation {
   # Building user environments remotely just causes huge amounts of
   # network traffic, so don't do that.
   preferLocalBuild = true;
+
+  # Don't build in a chroot because Nix's dependencies may not be there.
+  __noChroot = true;
 }
diff --git a/corepkgs/nar.nix b/corepkgs/nar.nix
index 5be8be10c1..4747dc31de 100644
--- a/corepkgs/nar.nix
+++ b/corepkgs/nar.nix
@@ -28,4 +28,7 @@ derivation {
   builder = shell;
   args = [ "-e" builder ];
   inherit storePath hashAlgo;
+
+  # Don't build in a chroot because Nix's dependencies may not be there.
+  __noChroot = true;
 }
diff --git a/corepkgs/unpack-channel.nix b/corepkgs/unpack-channel.nix
index 0fc2b2f456..245430ab0f 100644
--- a/corepkgs/unpack-channel.nix
+++ b/corepkgs/unpack-channel.nix
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ derivation {
   args = [ "-e" ./unpack-channel.sh ];
   inherit name channelName src bzip2 tar tr;
   PATH = "${nixBinDir}:${coreutils}";
+  
   # No point in doing this remotely.
   preferLocalBuild = true;
+
+  # Don't build in a chroot because Nix's dependencies may not be there.
+  __noChroot = true;
 }