diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/irqbalance/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/irqbalance/default.nix
index 4b7a4527e2c7..b11be3f27353 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/irqbalance/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/irqbalance/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, autoreconfHook, pkg-config, glib, ncurses, libcap_ng }:
+{ lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, fetchpatch, autoreconfHook, pkg-config, glib, ncurses, libcap_ng }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "irqbalance";
@@ -11,6 +11,16 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "sha256-K+Nv6HqBZb0pwfNV127QDq+suaUD7TTV413S6j8NdUU=";
   };
 
+  patches = [
+    # pull pending upstream inclusion fix for ncurses-6.3:
+    #  https://github.com/Irqbalance/irqbalance/pull/194
+    (fetchpatch {
+      name = "ncurses-6.3.patch";
+      url = "https://github.com/Irqbalance/irqbalance/commit/f8bdd0e64284d841544fd3ebe22f4652902ba8d2.patch";
+      sha256 = "sha256-QJIXr8BiKmn/81suuhNJsBRhY2as19/e480lsp2wd6g=";
+    })
+  ];
+
   nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook pkg-config ];
 
   buildInputs = [ glib ncurses libcap_ng ];