diff --git a/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix b/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix
index ac2a024eaa89430..52d284f739b3cea 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix
@@ -214,15 +214,7 @@ let
     # fontconfig default config files
     ln -s ${supportPkg.out}/etc/fonts/conf.d/*.conf \
           $support_folder/
-    ln -s ${latestPkg.out}/etc/fonts/conf.d/*.conf \
-          $latest_folder/
-
-    # update latest 51-local.conf path to look at the latest local.conf
-    rm    $latest_folder/51-local.conf
-
-    substitute ${latestPkg.out}/etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf \
-               $latest_folder/51-local.conf \
-               --replace local.conf /etc/fonts/${latestVersion}/local.conf
+    # Latest fontconfig is configured to look for the upstream defaults inside the package.
 
     # 00-nixos-cache.conf
     ln -s ${cacheConfSupport} \
@@ -236,7 +228,11 @@ let
     # 50-user.conf
     ${optionalString (!cfg.includeUserConf) ''
     rm $support_folder/50-user.conf
-    rm $latest_folder/50-user.conf
+    ''}
+    # Since latest fontconfig looks for default files inside the package,
+    # we had to move this one elsewhere to be able to exclude it here.
+    ${optionalString cfg.includeUserConf ''
+    ln -s ${latestPkg.out}/etc/fonts/conf.d.bak/50-user.conf $latest_folder/50-user.conf
     ''}
 
     # local.conf (indirect priority 51)
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/config-compat.patch b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/config-compat.patch
index e86f08fb553c9f9..ddf7bc78180ca9a 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/config-compat.patch
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/config-compat.patch
@@ -1,17 +1,22 @@
-commit 05c6adf8104b4321d3a3716a7b9feb6bf223ed0c (HEAD, nixpkgs)
-Author: Vladimír Čunát <vcunat@gmail.com>
-Date:   Tue Nov 4 12:24:25 2014 +0100
+From 2ff9b53ce755be183ef9274f7dd3f9ac537173f6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: =?UTF-8?q?Vladim=C3=ADr=20=C4=8Cun=C3=A1t?= <vcunat@gmail.com>
+Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2014 12:24:25 +0100
+Subject: [PATCH] add check for /etc/fonts/@configVersion@/fonts.conf
 
-    add check for /etc/fonts/@configVersion@/fonts.conf
-    
-    It's checked between FONTCONFIG_FILE and the usual /etc/fonts/fonts.conf.
-    Also, hardcode /etc/fonts/fonts.conf to prevent accidental override.
+It's checked between FONTCONFIG_FILE and the in-package etc/fonts/fonts.conf.
+The latter is used so that on non-NixOS distributions, fontconfig works at least
+with upstream defaults, even when the global config is incompatible.
+
+Co-Authored-By: Jan Tojnar <jtojnar@gmail.com>
+---
+ src/fccfg.c | 7 ++++++-
+ 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 
 diff --git a/src/fccfg.c b/src/fccfg.c
-index 6377fd7..e9eb10a 100644
+index 342c996..98a1324 100644
 --- a/src/fccfg.c
 +++ b/src/fccfg.c
-@@ -2070,8 +2070,13 @@ FcConfigFilename (const FcChar8 *url)
+@@ -2391,8 +2391,13 @@ FcConfigGetFilename (FcConfig      *config,
      if (!url || !*url)
      {
  	url = (FcChar8 *) getenv ("FONTCONFIG_FILE");
@@ -22,7 +27,10 @@ index 6377fd7..e9eb10a 100644
 +	}
  	if (!url)
 -	    url = (FcChar8 *) FONTCONFIG_FILE;
-+	    url = (FcChar8 *) "/etc/fonts/fonts.conf";
++	    url = (FcChar8 *) FONTCONFIG_PATH "/" FONTCONFIG_FILE;
      }
      file = 0;
  
+-- 
+2.26.2
+
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/default.nix
index b1bcf74fed466e6..f24518f546a25e6 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/default.nix
@@ -13,9 +13,10 @@
 
 /** Font configuration scheme
  - ./config-compat.patch makes fontconfig try the following root configs, in order:
-    $FONTCONFIG_FILE, /etc/fonts/${configVersion}/fonts.conf, /etc/fonts/fonts.conf
+    $FONTCONFIG_FILE, /etc/fonts/${configVersion}/fonts.conf, ${fontconfig.out}/etc/fonts/fonts.conf
     This is done not to override config of pre-2.11 versions (which just blow up)
-    and still use *global* font configuration at both NixOS or non-NixOS.
+    and still use *global* font configuration at NixOS,
+    falling back to upstream defaults on non-NixOS.
  - NixOS creates /etc/fonts/${configVersion}/fonts.conf link to $out/etc/fonts/fonts.conf,
     and other modifications should go to /etc/fonts/${configVersion}/conf.d
  - See ./make-fonts-conf.xsl for config details.
@@ -99,11 +100,20 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   postInstall = ''
     cd "$out/etc/fonts"
     xsltproc --stringparam fontDirectories "${dejavu_fonts.minimal}" \
+      --stringparam fontconfig "$out" \
       --stringparam fontconfigConfigVersion "${configVersion}" \
       --path $out/share/xml/fontconfig \
       ${./make-fonts-conf.xsl} $out/etc/fonts/fonts.conf \
       > fonts.conf.tmp
     mv fonts.conf.tmp $out/etc/fonts/fonts.conf
+
+    # Make it easier to remove user config in NixOS module.
+    mkdir -p $out/etc/fonts/conf.d.bak
+    mv $out/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf $out/etc/fonts/conf.d.bak
+
+    # update latest 51-local.conf path to look at the latest local.conf
+    substituteInPlace $out/etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf \
+      --replace local.conf /etc/fonts/${configVersion}/local.conf
   '';
 
   passthru = {
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.xsl b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.xsl
index dddbbe9e516bfc6..199cd1fd9e918b3 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.xsl
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.xsl
@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@
       <!-- versioned system-wide config -->
       <include ignore_missing="yes">/etc/fonts/<xsl:value-of select="$fontconfigConfigVersion" />/conf.d</include>
 
+      <!-- upstream config -->
+      <include><xsl:value-of select="$fontconfig" />/etc/fonts/conf.d</include>
+
       <dir prefix="xdg">fonts</dir>
       <xsl:for-each select="str:tokenize($fontDirectories)">
         <dir><xsl:value-of select="." /></dir>