diff --git a/corepkgs/buildenv.nix b/corepkgs/buildenv.nix
index 641231dd9ee162eac172838a5fac4f8e62bf59ee..50c9923af79fef5b72b7b65751bc1004a7a4cf3e 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 5be8be10c1666b946c101e676a48b59ff94b1aee..4747dc31def2edf0537cd9929e13e462929a352f 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 0fc2b2f456c4031ac44e898fcabf93b798031e16..245430ab0febb89b7d0542687a10e851314e27f7 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;
 }