diff --git a/pkgs/paraver/default.nix b/pkgs/paraver/default.nix
index 32e9796a..1d54eb21 100644
--- a/pkgs/paraver/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/paraver/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-{
-  stdenv
+{ stdenv
 , fetchFromGitHub
 , autoreconfHook
 , boost
@@ -12,14 +11,17 @@
 , openssl
 , glibcLocales
 , wrapGAppsHook
+
+, enableDebug ? false
 }:
 
 let
   wx = wxGTK32;
-in
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  pname = "wxparaver";
   version = "4.12.0";
+in
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  pname = "wxparaver";
+  inherit version;
 
   src = fetchFromGitHub {
     owner = "bsc-performance-tools";
@@ -36,21 +38,26 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     ./fix-boost-87.patch
   ];
 
-  hardeningDisable = [ "all" ];
-
   # Fix the PARAVER_HOME variable
   postPatch = ''
     sed -i 's@^PARAVER_HOME=.*$@PARAVER_HOME='$out'@g' docs/wxparaver
     sed -i '1aexport LOCALE_ARCHIVE="${glibcLocales}/lib/locale/locale-archive"' docs/wxparaver
   '';
 
-  dontStrip = true;
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
-  preConfigure = ''
-    export CFLAGS="-O3"
-    export CXXFLAGS="-O3"
-  '';
+  hardeningDisable = [ "all" ];
+
+  dontStrip = true;
+
+  env =
+    let
+      flags = if enableDebug then "-ggdb -Og" else "-O3";
+    in
+    {
+      CFLAGS = flags;
+      CXXFLAGS = flags;
+    };
 
   configureFlags = [
     "--with-boost=${boost}"
@@ -68,11 +75,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   buildInputs = [
     boost
-    libxml2.dev
+    libxml2
     xml2
     wx
     paraverKernel
-    openssl.dev
+    openssl
   ];
 
   postInstall = ''
diff --git a/pkgs/paraver/kernel.nix b/pkgs/paraver/kernel.nix
index 588aa3d8..596981a4 100644
--- a/pkgs/paraver/kernel.nix
+++ b/pkgs/paraver/kernel.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-{
-  stdenv
+{ stdenv
 , fetchFromGitHub
 , autoreconfHook
 , boost
@@ -9,11 +8,16 @@
 , automake
 , pkg-config
 , zlib
+
+, enableDebug ? false
 }:
 
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  pname = "paraver-kernel";
+let
   version = "4.12.0";
+in
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  pname = "paraver-kernel";
+  inherit version;
 
   src = fetchFromGitHub {
     owner = "bsc-performance-tools";
@@ -34,10 +38,14 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   dontStrip = true;
 
-  preConfigure = ''
-    export CFLAGS="-O3 -DPARALLEL_ENABLED"
-    export CXXFLAGS="-O3 -DPARALLEL_ENABLED"
-  '';
+  env =
+    let
+      flags = "-DPARALLEL_ENABLED " + (if enableDebug then "-ggdb -Og" else "-O3");
+    in
+    {
+      CFLAGS = flags;
+      CXXFLAGS = flags;
+    };
 
   configureFlags = [
     "--with-boost=${boost}"