diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R16.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R16.nix
index 3ac37b5bde17..123d813fc77a 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R16.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R16.nix
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ mkDerivation rec {
       sha256 = "17f3k5j17rdsah18gywjngip6cbfgp6nb9di6il4pahmf9yvqc8g";
     };
   in ''
-    ln -s $out/lib/erlang/lib/erl_interface*/bin/erl_call $out/bin/erl_call
     tar xf "${manpages}" -C "$out/lib/erlang"
     for i in "$out"/lib/erlang/man/man[0-9]/*.[0-9]; do
       prefix="''${i%/*}"
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R16B02-8-basho.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R16B02-8-basho.nix
index fe24ad64bf83..89c97f5a0eb7 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R16B02-8-basho.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R16B02-8-basho.nix
@@ -1,76 +1,38 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, fetchFromGitHub, perl, gnum4, ncurses, openssl, autoconf264, gcc, erlang
-, gnused, gawk, makeWrapper
-, odbcSupport ? false, unixODBC ? null
-, wxSupport ? false, mesa ? null, wxGTK ? null, xorg ? null
-, enableDebugInfo ? false
-, Carbon ? null, Cocoa ? null }:
+{ pkgs, mkDerivation }:
 
-assert wxSupport -> mesa != null && wxGTK != null && xorg != null;
-assert odbcSupport -> unixODBC != null;
-
-with stdenv.lib;
-
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  name = "erlang-basho-" + version + "${optionalString odbcSupport "-odbc"}";
+mkDerivation rec {
+  baseName = "erlang";
   version = "16B02";
 
-  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+  src = pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
     owner = "basho";
     repo = "otp";
     rev = "OTP_R16B02_basho8";
     sha256 = "1w0hbm0axxxa45v3kl6bywc9ayir5vwqxjpnjlzc616ldszb2m0x";
   };
 
-  debugInfo = enableDebugInfo;
-
-  buildInputs =
-    [ perl gnum4 ncurses openssl makeWrapper autoconf264 gcc
-    ] ++ optional wxSupport [ mesa wxGTK xorg.libX11 ]
-      ++ optional odbcSupport [ unixODBC ]
-      ++ optionals stdenv.isDarwin [ Carbon Cocoa ];
-
-  # Clang 4 (rightfully) thinks signed comparisons of pointers with NULL are nonsense
-  prePatch = ''
-    substituteInPlace lib/wx/c_src/wxe_impl.cpp --replace 'temp > NULL' 'temp != NULL'
-  '';
-
-  patchPhase = '' sed -i "s@/bin/rm@rm@" lib/odbc/configure.in erts/configure.in '';
-
-  postPatch = ''
-    patchSheBangs make
-  '';
-
   preConfigure = ''
     export HOME=$PWD/../
     export LANG=C
     export ERL_TOP=$(pwd)
     sed -e s@/bin/pwd@pwd@g -i otp_build
-    sed -e s@"/usr/bin/env escript"@${erlang}/bin/escript@g -i lib/diameter/bin/diameterc
-  '';
+    sed -e s@"/usr/bin/env escript"@$(pwd)/bootstrap/bin/escript@g -i lib/diameter/bin/diameterc
 
-  configureFlags= [
-    "--with-ssl=${openssl.dev}"
-    "--enable-smp-support"
-    "--enable-threads"
-    "--enable-kernel-poll"
-    "--disable-hipe"
-    "${optionalString odbcSupport "--with-odbc=${unixODBC}"}"
-    "${optionalString stdenv.isDarwin "--enable-darwin-64bit"}"
-    "${optionalString stdenv.isLinux "--enable-m64-build"}"
-  ];
-
-  buildPhase = ''
     ./otp_build autoconf
-    ./otp_build setup -a --prefix=$out $configureFlags
   '';
 
+  enableHipe = false;
+
+  # Do not install docs, instead use prebuilt versions.
+  installTargets = "install";
   postInstall = let
-    manpages = fetchurl {
+    manpages = pkgs.fetchurl {
       url = "http://www.erlang.org/download/otp_doc_man_R${version}.tar.gz";
       sha256 = "12apxjmmd591y9g9bhr97z5jbd1jarqg7wj0y2sqhl21hc1yp75p";
     };
   in ''
-    ln -s $out/lib/erlang/lib/erl_interface*/bin/erl_call $out/bin/erl_call
+    sed -e s@$(pwd)/bootstrap/bin/escript@$out/bin/escript@g -i $out/lib/erlang/lib/diameter-1.4.3/bin/diameterc
+
     tar xf "${manpages}" -C "$out/lib/erlang"
     for i in "$out"/lib/erlang/man/man[0-9]/*.[0-9]; do
       prefix="''${i%/*}"
@@ -79,14 +41,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     done
   '';
 
-  # Some erlang bin/ scripts run sed and awk
-  postFixup = ''
-    wrapProgram $out/lib/erlang/bin/erl --prefix PATH ":" "${gnused}/bin/"
-    wrapProgram $out/lib/erlang/bin/start_erl --prefix PATH ":" "${gnused}/bin/:${gawk}/bin"
-  '';
-
-  setupHook = ./setup-hook.sh;
-
   meta = {
     homepage = "https://github.com/basho/otp/";
     description = "Programming language used for massively scalable soft real-time systems, Basho fork";
@@ -103,7 +57,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     '';
 
     platforms = ["x86_64-linux" "x86_64-darwin"];
-    license = stdenv.lib.licenses.asl20;
-    maintainers = with maintainers; [ mdaiter ];
+    license = pkgs.stdenv.lib.licenses.asl20;
+    maintainers = with pkgs.stdenv.lib.maintainers; [ mdaiter ];
   };
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R17.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R17.nix
index 3d78c6ee242a..02d7513331eb 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R17.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/R17.nix
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ mkDerivation rec {
       sha256 = "1hspm285bl7i9a0d4r6j6lm5yk4sb5d9xzpia3simh0z06hv5cc5";
     };
   in ''
-    ln -s $out/lib/erlang/lib/erl_interface*/bin/erl_call $out/bin/erl_call
     tar xf "${manpages}" -C "$out/lib/erlang"
     for i in "$out"/lib/erlang/man/man[0-9]/*.[0-9]; do
       prefix="''${i%/*}"
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/generic-builder.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/generic-builder.nix
index 0127bb933c4a..3434603f3028 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/generic-builder.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/erlang/generic-builder.nix
@@ -1,16 +1,20 @@
-{ pkgs, stdenv, fetchurl, fetchFromGitHub, makeWrapper, autoconf, gawk, gnum4, gnused
-, libxml2, libxslt, ncurses, openssl, perl
+{ pkgs, stdenv, fetchurl, fetchFromGitHub, makeWrapper, gawk, gnum4, gnused
+, libxml2, libxslt, ncurses, openssl, perl, gcc, autoreconfHook
 , openjdk ? null # javacSupport
 , unixODBC ? null # odbcSupport
 , mesa ? null, wxGTK ? null, wxmac ? null, xorg ? null # wxSupport
 }:
 
-{ version
+{ baseName ? "erlang"
+, version
 , sha256 ? null
 , rev ? "OTP-${version}"
 , src ? fetchFromGitHub { inherit rev sha256; owner = "erlang"; repo = "otp"; }
 , enableHipe ? true
 , enableDebugInfo ? false
+, enableThreads ? true
+, enableSmpSupport ? true
+, enableKernelPoll ? true
 , javacSupport ? false, javacPackages ? [ openjdk ]
 , odbcSupport ? false, odbcPackages ? [ unixODBC ]
 , wxSupport ? true, wxPackages ? [ mesa wxGTK xorg.libX11 ]
@@ -22,6 +26,7 @@
 , installTargets ? "install install-docs"
 , checkPhase ? "", preCheck ? "", postCheck ? ""
 , fixupPhase ? "", preFixup ? "", postFixup ? ""
+, meta ? null
 }:
 
 assert wxSupport -> (if stdenv.isDarwin
@@ -36,13 +41,15 @@ let
   wxPackages2 = if stdenv.isDarwin then [ wxmac ] else wxPackages;
 
 in stdenv.mkDerivation ({
-  name = "erlang-${version}"
+  name = "${baseName}-${version}"
     + optionalString javacSupport "-javac"
     + optionalString odbcSupport "-odbc";
 
   inherit src version;
 
-  buildInputs = [ perl gnum4 ncurses openssl autoconf libxslt libxml2 makeWrapper ]
+  buildInputs =
+   [ perl gnum4 ncurses openssl autoreconfHook libxslt libxml2 makeWrapper gcc
+   ]
     ++ optionals wxSupport wxPackages2
     ++ optionals odbcSupport odbcPackages
     ++ optionals javacSupport javacPackages
@@ -58,9 +65,9 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation ({
   '';
 
   postPatch = ''
-    patchShebangs make
-
     ${postPatch}
+
+    patchShebangs make
   '';
 
   preConfigure = ''
@@ -68,6 +75,9 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation ({
   '';
 
   configureFlags = [ "--with-ssl=${openssl.dev}" ]
+    ++ optional enableThreads "--enable-threads"
+    ++ optional enableSmpSupport "--enable-smp-support"
+    ++ optional enableKernelPoll "--enable-kernel-poll"
     ++ optional enableHipe "--enable-hipe"
     ++ optional javacSupport "--with-javac"
     ++ optional odbcSupport "--with-odbc=${unixODBC}"
@@ -78,6 +88,8 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation ({
   # (PDFs are generated only when fop is available).
 
   postInstall = ''
+    ${postInstall}
+
     ln -s $out/lib/erlang/lib/erl_interface*/bin/erl_call $out/bin/erl_call
   '';
 
@@ -125,8 +137,8 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation ({
 // optionalAttrs (installPhase != "")   { inherit installPhase; }
 // optionalAttrs (installTargets != "") { inherit installTargets; }
 // optionalAttrs (preInstall != "")     { inherit preInstall; }
-// optionalAttrs (postInstall != "")    { inherit postInstall; }
 // optionalAttrs (fixupPhase != "")     { inherit fixupPhase; }
 // optionalAttrs (preFixup != "")       { inherit preFixup; }
 // optionalAttrs (postFixup != "")      { inherit postFixup; }
+// optionalAttrs (meta != null)         { inherit meta; }
 )
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/beam-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/beam-packages.nix
index 547e650a636d..3451816c0c5b 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/beam-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/beam-packages.nix
@@ -38,11 +38,9 @@ rec {
     };
 
     # Bash fork, using custom builder.
-    erlang_basho_R16B02 = callPackage ../development/interpreters/erlang/R16B02-8-basho.nix {
-      inherit (darwin.apple_sdk.frameworks) Carbon Cocoa;
+    erlang_basho_R16B02 = lib.callErlang ../development/interpreters/erlang/R16B02-8-basho.nix {
     };
-    erlang_basho_R16B02_odbc = callPackage ../development/interpreters/erlang/R16B02-8-basho.nix {
-      inherit (darwin.apple_sdk.frameworks) Carbon Cocoa;
+    erlang_basho_R16B02_odbc = erlang_basho_R16B02.override {
       odbcSupport = true;
     };