diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/tkinter/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/tkinter/default.nix
index afc6d765a4986..233b2b2b0e4a9 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/tkinter/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/tkinter/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 {
   lib,
+  stdenv,
   buildPythonPackage,
   replaceVars,
   setuptools,
@@ -8,7 +9,6 @@
   tcl,
   tclPackages,
   tk,
-  tkinter,
   xvfb-run,
 }:
 
@@ -27,23 +27,28 @@ buildPythonPackage {
     cp -rv Modules/clinic ../tkinter/
     cp -rv Lib/tkinter ../tkinter/
 
-    pushd $NIX_BUILD_TOP/tkinter
-
     # install our custom pyproject.toml
     cp ${
       replaceVars ./pyproject.toml {
         python_version = python.version;
         python_internal_dir = "${python}/include/${python.libPrefix}/internal";
       }
-    } ./pyproject.toml
+    } $NIX_BUILD_TOP/tkinter/pyproject.toml
 
   ''
   + lib.optionalString (pythonOlder "3.13") ''
-    substituteInPlace "tkinter/tix.py" --replace-fail \
+    substituteInPlace "$NIX_BUILD_TOP/tkinter/tkinter/tix.py" --replace-fail \
       "os.environ.get('TIX_LIBRARY')" \
       "os.environ.get('TIX_LIBRARY') or '${tclPackages.tix}/lib'"
   '';
 
+  # Adapted from https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/124542
+  patches = lib.optional (pythonOlder "3.12") ./fix-ttk-notebook-test.patch;
+
+  preConfigure = ''
+    pushd $NIX_BUILD_TOP/tkinter
+  '';
+
   build-system = [ setuptools ];
 
   buildInputs = [
@@ -64,24 +69,42 @@ buildPythonPackage {
     ];
   };
 
-  doCheck = false;
-
-  nativeCheckInputs = [ xvfb-run ];
+  nativeCheckInputs = lib.optional stdenv.hostPlatform.isLinux xvfb-run;
 
   preCheck = ''
     cd $NIX_BUILD_TOP/Python-*/Lib
     export HOME=$TMPDIR
   '';
 
-  checkPhase = ''
-    runHook preCheck
-    xvfb-run -w 10 -s "-screen 0 1920x1080x24" \
-      python -m unittest test.test_tkinter
-
-    runHook postCheck
-  '';
-
-  passthru.tests.unittests = tkinter.overridePythonAttrs { doCheck = true; };
+  checkPhase =
+    let
+      testsNoGui = [
+        "test.test_tcl"
+        "test.test_ttk_textonly"
+      ];
+      testsGui =
+        if pythonOlder "3.12" then
+          [
+            "test.test_tk"
+            "test.test_ttk_guionly"
+          ]
+        else
+          [
+            "test.test_tkinter"
+            "test.test_ttk"
+          ];
+    in
+    ''
+      runHook preCheck
+      ${python.interpreter} -m unittest ${lib.concatStringsSep " " testsNoGui}
+    ''
+    + lib.optionalString stdenv.hostPlatform.isLinux ''
+      xvfb-run -w 10 -s "-screen 0 1920x1080x24" \
+        ${python.interpreter} -m unittest ${lib.concatStringsSep " " testsGui}
+    ''
+    + ''
+      runHook postCheck
+    '';
 
   pythonImportsCheck = [ "tkinter" ];
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/tkinter/fix-ttk-notebook-test.patch b/pkgs/development/python-modules/tkinter/fix-ttk-notebook-test.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..cf2ca0f7acdfa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/tkinter/fix-ttk-notebook-test.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+--- a/Lib/tkinter/test/test_ttk/test_widgets.py
++++ b/Lib/tkinter/test/test_ttk/test_widgets.py
+@@ -911,12 +911,20 @@ class ScrollbarTest(AbstractWidgetTest, unittest.TestCase):
+         return ttk.Scrollbar(self.root, **kwargs)
+ 
+ 
+-@add_standard_options(IntegerSizeTests, StandardTtkOptionsTests)
++@add_standard_options(StandardTtkOptionsTests)
+ class NotebookTest(AbstractWidgetTest, unittest.TestCase):
+     OPTIONS = (
+         'class', 'cursor', 'height', 'padding', 'style', 'takefocus', 'width',
+     )
+ 
++    def test_configure_height(self):
++        widget = self.create()
++        self.checkPixelsParam(widget, 'height', '10c', 402, -402, 0, conv=False)
++
++    def test_configure_width(self):
++        widget = self.create()
++        self.checkPixelsParam(widget, 'width', '10c', 402, -402, 0, conv=False)
++
+     def setUp(self):
+         super().setUp()
+         self.nb = self.create(padding=0)
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/tkinter/pyproject.toml b/pkgs/development/python-modules/tkinter/pyproject.toml
index 770331a7ef4f5..a53ccd8c72a28 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/tkinter/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/tkinter/pyproject.toml
@@ -11,6 +11,5 @@ requires-python = ">=@python_version@"
 [tool.setuptools]
 packages = ["tkinter"]
 ext-modules = [
-  { name = "_tkinter", sources = ["_tkinter.c"], libraries = ["tcl9.0", "tcl9tk9.0"], include-dirs = ["@python_internal_dir@/"] }
+  { name = "_tkinter", sources = ["_tkinter.c"], libraries = ["tcl", "tk"], include-dirs = ["@python_internal_dir@/"] }
 ]
-
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index 9e7bfc8df7f13..e7e417363f0c8 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -18388,8 +18388,11 @@ self: super: with self; {
       null
     else
       callPackage ../development/python-modules/tkinter {
-        tcl = pkgs.tcl-9_0;
-        tk = pkgs.tk-9_0;
+        # Tcl/Tk 9.0 support in Tkinter is not quite ready yet:
+        # - https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/124111
+        # - https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/104568
+        tcl = pkgs.tcl-8_6;
+        tk = pkgs.tk-8_6;
       };
 
   tkinter-gl = callPackage ../development/python-modules/tkinter-gl { };