diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/at-spi2-atk/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/at-spi2-atk/default.nix
index 688c9e300ed5..a9652f4da3ee 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/at-spi2-atk/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/at-spi2-atk/default.nix
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   nativeBuildInputs = [ meson ninja pkgconfig ];
   buildInputs = [ at-spi2-core atk dbus glib libxml2 ];
 
+  doCheck = false; # fails with "No test data file provided"
+
   passthru = {
     updateScript = gnome3.updateScript {
       packageName = pname;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/at-spi2-core/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/at-spi2-core/default.nix
index ba34e7f5f3fe..9bbde08023ba 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/at-spi2-core/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/at-spi2-core/default.nix
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   nativeBuildInputs = [ meson ninja pkgconfig gobjectIntrospection ];
   buildInputs = [ dbus glib libX11 libXtst libXi ];
 
+  doCheck = false; # fails with "AT-SPI: Couldn't connect to accessibility bus. Is at-spi-bus-launcher running?"
+
   passthru = {
     updateScript = gnome3.updateScript {
       packageName = pname;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/fribidi/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/fribidi/default.nix
index 7a903f00ae60..208d88ed18e3 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/fribidi/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/fribidi/default.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 , ninja
 , pkgconfig
 , fixDarwinDylibNames
+, python3
 }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
@@ -12,16 +13,22 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "fribidi";
   version = "1.0.4";
 
+  outputs = [ "out" "devdoc" ];
+
   # NOTE: 2018-06-06 v1.0.4: Only URL tarball has "Have pre-generated man pages: true", which works-around upstream usage of some rare ancient `c2man` fossil application.
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "https://github.com/${pname}/${pname}/releases/download/v${version}/${name}.tar.bz2";
     sha256 = "1gipy8fjyn6i4qrhima02x8xs493d21f22dijp88nk807razxgcl";
   };
 
+  postPatch = ''
+    patchShebangs test
+  '';
+
   nativeBuildInputs = [ meson ninja pkgconfig ];
   buildInputs = stdenv.lib.optional stdenv.isDarwin fixDarwinDylibNames;
 
-  outputs = [ "out" "devdoc" ];
+  checkInptus = [ python3 ];
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     homepage = https://github.com/fribidi/fribidi;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libnice/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libnice/default.nix
index cdf93b0b2ff4..1f58545574cd 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libnice/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libnice/default.nix
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   buildInputs = [ gst_all_1.gstreamer gst_all_1.gst-plugins-base gnutls ];
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ glib gupnp-igd ];
 
+  doCheck = false; # fails with "fatal error: nice/agent.h: No such file or directory"
+
   meta = {
     homepage = https://nice.freedesktop.org/wiki/;
     description = "The GLib ICE implementation";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/librdf/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/librdf/default.nix
index 8f8a54337f24..41047796662e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/librdf/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/librdf/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 { stdenv, fetchurl, pkgconfig, autoreconfHook
 , librdf_raptor2, ladspaH, openssl, zlib
+, doCheck ? stdenv.config.doCheckByDefault or false, ladspaPlugins
 }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
@@ -11,14 +12,18 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "18p2flb2sv2hq6w2qkd29z9c7knnwqr3f12i2srshlzx6vwkm05s";
   };
 
-  preAutoreconf = "rm m4/*";
-  postPatch = "sed -i -e 's:usr/local:usr:' examples/{instances,remove}_test.c";
+  postPatch = stdenv.lib.optionalString doCheck ''
+    sed -i -e 's:usr/local:${ladspaPlugins}:' examples/{instances,remove}_test.c
+  '';
 
+  preAutoreconf = "rm m4/*";
   nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook pkgconfig ];
   buildInputs = [ ladspaH openssl zlib ];
 
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ librdf_raptor2 ];
 
+  inherit doCheck;
+
   meta = {
     description = "Lightweight RDF library with special support for LADSPA plugins";
     homepage = https://sourceforge.net/projects/lrdf/;