diff --git a/pkgs/desktops/xfce/core/exo/default.nix b/pkgs/desktops/xfce/core/exo/default.nix
index 6566d77ebbec..ee58c76ea02b 100644
--- a/pkgs/desktops/xfce/core/exo/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/desktops/xfce/core/exo/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ mkXfceDerivation, docbook_xsl, glib, libxslt, perlPackages, gtk3
+{ mkXfceDerivation, docbook_xsl, glib, libxslt, perlPackages, gtk2, gtk3
 , libxfce4ui, libxfce4util }:
 
 mkXfceDerivation {
@@ -8,8 +8,19 @@ mkXfceDerivation {
 
   sha256 = "1db7w6jk3i501x4qw0hs0ydrm1fjdkxmahzbv5iag859wnnlg0pd";
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ libxslt perlPackages.URI docbook_xsl ];
-  buildInputs = [ gtk3 glib libxfce4ui libxfce4util ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [
+    libxslt
+    perlPackages.URI
+    docbook_xsl
+  ];
+
+  buildInputs = [
+    gtk2 # some xfce plugins still uses gtk2
+    gtk3
+    glib
+    libxfce4ui
+    libxfce4util
+  ];
 
   # Workaround https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15825
   NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE = "-I${glib.dev}/include/gio-unix-2.0";