diff --git a/pkgs/servers/mail/exim/default.nix b/pkgs/servers/mail/exim/default.nix
index 60ff9cab2d3..7c9b98722ed 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/mail/exim/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/mail/exim/default.nix
@@ -16,12 +16,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ];
   buildInputs = [ coreutils db openssl perl pcre ]
     ++ stdenv.lib.optional enableLDAP openldap
-    ++ stdenv.lib.optionals enableMySQL [ mysql zlib ]
+    ++ stdenv.lib.optionals enableMySQL [ mysql.connector-c zlib ]
     ++ stdenv.lib.optional enableAuthDovecot dovecot
     ++ stdenv.lib.optional enablePAM pam;

   preBuild = ''
-    ${stdenv.lib.optionalString enableMySQL "PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:${mysql}/share/mysql/pkgconfig/"}
     sed '
       s:^\(BIN_DIRECTORY\)=.*:\1='"$out"'/bin:
       s:^\(CONFIGURE_FILE\)=.*:\1=/etc/exim.conf:
@@ -52,10 +51,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       ''}
       ${stdenv.lib.optionalString enableMySQL ''
         s:^# \(LOOKUP_MYSQL=yes\)$:\1:
-        s:^# \(LOOKUP_MYSQL_PC=mariadb\)$:\1:
-        s:^\(LOOKUP_LIBS\)=\(.*\):\1=\2 -lmysqlclient:
-        s:^# \(LOOKUP_LIBS\)=.*:\1=-lmysqlclient:
-        s:^# \(LOOKUP_INCLUDE\)=.*:\1=-I${mysql}/include/mysql/:
+        s:^# \(LOOKUP_MYSQL_PC=mysql.connector-c\)$:\1:
+        s:^\(LOOKUP_LIBS\)=\(.*\):\1=\2 -lmysqlclient -L${mysql.connector-c}/lib/mysql -lssl -ldl -lm -lpthread -lz:
+        s:^# \(LOOKUP_LIBS\)=.*:\1=-lmysqlclient -L${mysql.connector-c}/lib/mysql -lssl -ldl -lm -lpthread -lz:
+        s:^# \(LOOKUP_INCLUDE\)=.*:\1=-I${mysql.connector-c}/include/mysql:
       ''}
       ${stdenv.lib.optionalString enableAuthDovecot ''
         s:^# \(AUTH_DOVECOT\)=.*:\1=yes: