diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-24/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-24/default.nix
index 18e263dae67e..c558b483e97b 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-24/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-24/default.nix
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 , pkgconfig, gtk, libXft, dbus, libpng, libjpeg, libungif
 , libtiff, librsvg, texinfo, gconf, libxml2, imagemagick, gnutls
 , alsaLib, cairo
-, withX ? true
+, withX ? !stdenv.isDarwin
 }:
 
 assert (libXft != null) -> libpng != null;	# probably a bug