diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
index beff263..fa8a0e1 100644
--- a/flake.nix
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -20,13 +20,10 @@
           overrides = composeExtensions (old.overrides or (_: _: {}))
             (hol final prev);
         }));
-    patch = unstable
-          + "/pkgs/development/haskell-modules/patches/xmonad_0_17_0-nix.patch";
     hoverlay = final: prev: hself: hsuper:
       with prev.haskell.lib.compose; {
-      xmonad = appendPatch patch
-        (hself.callCabal2nix "xmonad"
-          (git-ignore-nix.lib.gitignoreSource ./.) { });
+        xmonad = hself.callCabal2nix "xmonad"
+          (git-ignore-nix.lib.gitignoreSource ./.) { };
       };
     overlay = fromHOL hoverlay { };
     overlays = [ overlay ];
diff --git a/src/XMonad/Core.hs b/src/XMonad/Core.hs
index aff0857..e8e610d 100644
--- a/src/XMonad/Core.hs
+++ b/src/XMonad/Core.hs
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ import Data.Semigroup
 import Data.Traversable (for)
 import Data.Time.Clock (UTCTime)
 import Data.Default.Class
+import System.Environment (lookupEnv)
 import System.FilePath
 import System.IO
 import System.Info
@@ -457,7 +458,8 @@ xfork x = io . forkProcess . finally nullStdin $ do
 -- | Use @xmessage@ to show information to the user.
 xmessage :: MonadIO m => String -> m ()
 xmessage msg = void . xfork $ do
-    executeFile "xmessage" True
+    xmessageBin <- fromMaybe "xmessage" <$> liftIO (lookupEnv "XMONAD_XMESSAGE")
+    executeFile xmessageBin True
         [ "-default", "okay"
         , "-xrm", "*international:true"
         , "-xrm", "*fontSet:-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,-*-fixed-*-*-*-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,-*-*-*-*-*-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
@@ -653,8 +655,9 @@ compile dirs method =
         withFile (errFileName dirs) WriteMode $ \err -> do
             let run = runProc (cfgDir dirs) err
             case method of
-                CompileGhc ->
-                    run "ghc" ghcArgs
+                CompileGhc -> do
+                    ghc <- fromMaybe "ghc" <$> lookupEnv "XMONAD_GHC"
+                    run ghc ghcArgs
                 CompileStackGhc stackYaml ->
                     run "stack" ["build", "--silent", "--stack-yaml", stackYaml] .&&.
                     run "stack" ("ghc" : "--stack-yaml" : stackYaml : "--" : ghcArgs)