diff --git a/pkgs/tools/package-management/pacman/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/package-management/pacman/default.nix
index 60fd7caa5a5..9fd0ea05510 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/package-management/pacman/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/package-management/pacman/default.nix
@@ -16,10 +16,13 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     # trying to build docs fails with a2x errors, unable to fix through asciidoc
     "--disable-doc"
 
+    "--sysconfdir=/etc"
     "--localstatedir=/var"
     "--with-scriptlet-shell=${runtimeShell}"
   ];
 
+  installFlags = [ "sysconfdir=${placeholder "out"}/etc" ];
+
   nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook pkgconfig ];
   buildInputs = [ curl perl libarchive openssl zlib bzip2 lzma ];