diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/writers/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/writers/default.nix
index 4b4d4bb203e0..3797df56afa5 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/writers/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/writers/default.nix
@@ -240,9 +240,9 @@ rec {
       then "${python}/bin/python"
       else "${python.withPackages (ps: libraries)}/bin/python"
     ;
-    check = writeDash "python2check.sh" ''
+    check = optionalString python.isPy3k (writeDash "pythoncheck.sh" ''
       exec ${pythonPackages.flake8}/bin/flake8 --show-source ${ignoreAttribute} "$1"
-    '';
+    '');
   } name;
 
   # writePython2 takes a name an attributeset with libraries and some python2 sourcecode and
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/flake8/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/flake8/default.nix
index 7f51cd2703c4..c707cb3caaa1 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/flake8/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/flake8/default.nix
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     pytestCheckHook
   ];
 
+  disabled = pythonOlder "3.6";
+
   meta = with lib; {
     description = "Flake8 is a wrapper around pyflakes, pycodestyle and mccabe.";
     homepage = "https://github.com/pycqa/flake8";