diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/libredirect/libredirect.c b/pkgs/build-support/libredirect/libredirect.c
index dcf3a2016bc2..655399af58f5 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/libredirect/libredirect.c
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/libredirect/libredirect.c
@@ -166,10 +166,3 @@ int execv(const char *path, char *const argv[])
     char buf[PATH_MAX];
     return execv_real(rewrite(path, buf), argv);
 }
-
-void *dlopen(const char *filename, int flag)
-{
-    void * (*__dlopen_real) (const char *, int) = dlsym(RTLD_NEXT, "dlopen");
-    char buf[PATH_MAX];
-    return __dlopen_real(rewrite(filename, buf), flag);
-}
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/networking/network-manager/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/networking/network-manager/default.nix
index 79913d439687..f6077b8c2f83 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/networking/network-manager/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/networking/network-manager/default.nix
@@ -61,13 +61,6 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     # Meson does not support using different directories during build and
     # for installation like Autotools did with flags passed to make install.
     ./fix-install-paths.patch
-
-    # Our gobject-introspection patches make the shared library paths absolute
-    # in the GIR files. When building docs, the library is not yet installed,
-    # though, so we need to replace the absolute path with a local one during build.
-    # We are replacing the variables in postPatch since substituteAll does not support
-    # placeholders.
-    ./fix-docs-build.patch
   ];
 
   buildInputs = [
@@ -91,10 +84,15 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   postPatch = ''
     patchShebangs ./tools
     patchShebangs libnm/generate-setting-docs.py
+  '';
 
-    substituteInPlace libnm/meson.build \
-      --subst-var-by DOCS_LD_PRELOAD "${libredirect}/lib/libredirect.so" \
-      --subst-var-by DOCS_NIX_REDIRECTS "${placeholder "out"}/lib/libnm.so.0=$PWD/build/libnm/libnm.so.0"
+  preBuild = ''
+    # Our gobject-introspection patches make the shared library paths absolute
+    # in the GIR files. When building docs, the library is not yet installed,
+    # though, so we need to replace the absolute path with a local one during build.
+    # We are using a symlink that will be overridden during installation.
+    mkdir -p ${placeholder "out"}/lib
+    ln -s $PWD/libnm/libnm.so.0 ${placeholder "out"}/lib/libnm.so.0
   '';
 
   postInstall = ''
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/networking/network-manager/fix-docs-build.patch b/pkgs/tools/networking/network-manager/fix-docs-build.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 45e18c42fbe1..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/tools/networking/network-manager/fix-docs-build.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
---- a/libnm/meson.build
-+++ b/libnm/meson.build
-@@ -262,6 +262,8 @@
-     'env', '-i',
-     'GI_TYPELIB_PATH=' + gi_typelib_path,
-     'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=' + ld_library_path,
-+    'LD_PRELOAD=' + '@DOCS_LD_PRELOAD@',
-+    'NIX_REDIRECTS=' + '@DOCS_NIX_REDIRECTS@',
-   ]
- 
-   name = 'nm-property-docs.xml'