diff --git a/pkgs/desktops/gnome-2/desktop/mail-notification/default.nix b/pkgs/desktops/gnome-2/desktop/mail-notification/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..36608f4294bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/desktops/gnome-2/desktop/mail-notification/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, fetchFromGitHub, pkgconfig, glib, gnome2, dbus_glib, gmime, libnotify, libgnome_keyring, openssl, cyrus_sasl, gnonlin, sylpheed, gob2, gettext, intltool, libxml2, hicolor_icon_theme, tango-icon-theme }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  rev = "9ae8768";
+  version = "5.4";
+  name = "mail-notification-${version}";
+
+  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+    inherit rev;
+    owner = "epienbroek";
+    repo = "mail-notification";
+    sha256 = "1slb7gajn30vdaq0hf5rikwdly1npmg1cf83hpjs82xd98knl13d";
+  };
+
+   buildInputs = [ pkgconfig glib dbus_glib gmime libnotify libgnome_keyring openssl cyrus_sasl gnonlin sylpheed gob2 gettext intltool gnome2.GConf gnome2.libgnomeui dbus_glib gmime libnotify gnome2.gnome_keyring gnome2.scrollkeeper libxml2 gnome2.gnome_icon_theme hicolor_icon_theme tango-icon-theme ];
+
+  prePatch = ''
+    sed -i  -e '/jb_rule_set_install_message/d' -e '/jb_rule_add_install_command/d' jbsrc/jb.c
+
+    # currently disable the check for missing sheme until a better solution
+    # is found; needed, because otherwise the application doesn't even start
+    # and fails saying it unable to find gconf scheme values.
+    sed -i -e 's/(schema_missing)/(!schema_missing)/g' src/mn-conf.c
+  '';
+
+  patches = [
+    ./patches/mail-notification-dont-link-against-bsd-compat.patch
+  ];
+
+  patchFlags = "-p0";
+  NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE = "-Wno-error";
+
+  preConfigure = "./jb configure prefix=$out";
+
+  postConfigure = ''
+    substituteInPlace build/config \
+      --replace "omf-dir|string|1|${gnome2.scrollkeeper}/share/omf" "omf-dir|string|1|$out/share/omf" \
+      --replace "scrollkeeper-dir|string|1|${gnome2.scrollkeeper}/var/lib/scrollkeeper" "omf-dir|string|1|$out/var/lib/scrollkeeper" \
+  '';
+
+  buildPhase = "./jb build";
+  installPhase = "./jb install";
+
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    description = "Tray status icon, which notifies us when new email arrives";
+    homepage = "http://www.nongnu.org/mailnotify/";
+    license = with licenses; [ gpl3 ];
+    platforms = platforms.unix;
+    maintainers = [ maintainers.eleanor ];
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/desktops/gnome-2/desktop/mail-notification/patches/mail-notification-dont-link-against-bsd-compat.patch b/pkgs/desktops/gnome-2/desktop/mail-notification/patches/mail-notification-dont-link-against-bsd-compat.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e246a8cc9389
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/desktops/gnome-2/desktop/mail-notification/patches/mail-notification-dont-link-against-bsd-compat.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+--- jbsrc/jb.c.orig	2014-01-19 20:06:48.525462981 +0100
++++ jbsrc/jb.c	2014-01-19 20:07:36.087934897 +0100
+@@ -425,7 +425,6 @@
+        */
+       jb_compile_options_add_cflags(object->compile_options, "-std=c99");
+       jb_compile_options_add_cppflags(object->compile_options, "-D_BSD_SOURCE -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199309L");
+-      jb_compile_options_add_libs(object->compile_options, "-lbsd-compat");
+     }
+ 
+   jb_compile_options_add_string_defines(object->compile_options,
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 4667c90de096..910df7d74af7 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -13745,6 +13745,8 @@ in
 
   lyx = qt5.callPackage ../applications/misc/lyx { };
 
+  mail-notification = callPackage ../desktops/gnome-2/desktop/mail-notification {};
+
   magnetophonDSP = {
     CharacterCompressor = callPackage ../applications/audio/magnetophonDSP/CharacterCompressor { };
     CompBus = callPackage ../applications/audio/magnetophonDSP/CompBus { };