diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cabal-install/bootstrap.patch b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cabal-install/bootstrap.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 374706ccf4..0000000000
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cabal-install/bootstrap.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
---- a/bootstrap.sh  2016-05-02 14:15:09.000000000 +0300
-+++ b/bootstrap.sh  2016-07-03 22:35:15.000000000 +0300
-@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@
- # Find the correct linker/linker-wrapper.
-  LINK="$(for link in collect2 ld; do
-           [ $($CC -print-prog-name=$link) = $link ] && continue ||
--          $CC -print-prog-name=$link
-+          $CC -print-prog-name=$link && break
-         done)"
-
- # Fall back to "ld"... might work.
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cabal-install/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cabal-install/package.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 5300970452..0000000000
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cabal-install/package.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,51 +0,0 @@
-##############################################################################
-# Copyright (c) 2013-2016, Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.
-# Produced at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
-#
-# This file is part of Spack.
-# Created by Todd Gamblin, tgamblin@llnl.gov, All rights reserved.
-# LLNL-CODE-647188
-#
-# For details, see https://github.com/llnl/spack
-# Please also see the LICENSE file for our notice and the LGPL.
-#
-# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
-# it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (as
-# published by the Free Software Foundation) version 2.1, February 1999.
-#
-# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
-# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the IMPLIED WARRANTY OF
-# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the terms and
-# conditions of the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
-#
-# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
-# License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
-# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
-##############################################################################
-from spack import *
-
-
-class CabalInstall(Package):
-    """The 'cabal' command-line program simplifies the process of managing
-       Haskell software by automating the fetching, configuration,
-       compilation and installation of Haskell libraries and programs."""
-
-    homepage = "http://www.haskell.org/cabal/"
-    url      = "http://hackage.haskell.org/package/cabal-install-1.24.0.0/cabal-install-1.24.0.0.tar.gz"
-
-    version('1.24.0.0', 'beb998cdc385523935620381abe393f4')
-
-    depends_on('zlib')
-    depends_on('ghc')
-
-    # @mvkorpel's fix from:
-    # https://github.com/haskell/cabal/issues/3440
-    # It works around problem deciding whether to use collect2 or ld.
-    # The symptom is complaint about "Setup: Unrecognized flags:..."
-    patch('bootstrap.patch')
-
-    def install(self, spec, prefix):
-        bash=which("bash")
-        bash("bootstrap.sh", "--sandbox", prefix)
-        #bin.install ".cabal-sandbox/bin/cabal"
-        #bash_completion.install "bash-completion/cabal"