diff --git a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.build b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.build
index f3de7bc6f52..cbc305fa4b1 100755
--- a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.build
+++ b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.build
@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ if [ "${container:-}" != "mkosi" ]; then
     exec mkosi-chroot "$SCRIPT" "$@"
 fi
 
+# We don't want to install our build of systemd in the base image, but use it as an extra tree for the
+# initrd and final images, so override DESTDIR to store it in the output directory so we can reference it as
+# an extra tree in the initrd and final image builds.
+DESTDIR="$OUTPUTDIR/systemd"
+
 # If mkosi.builddir/ exists mkosi will set $BUILDDIR to it, let's then use it
 # as out-of-tree build dir. Otherwise, let's make up our own builddir.
 [ -z "$BUILDDIR" ] && BUILDDIR="$PWD"/build
@@ -29,7 +34,8 @@ done
 # CentOS Stream 8 includes bpftool 4.18.0 which is lower than what we need. However, they've backported the
 # specific feature we need ("gen skeleton") to this version, so we replace bpftool with a script that reports
 # version 5.6.0 to satisfy meson which makes bpf work on CentOS Stream 8 as well.
-if [ "$(grep '^ID=' /etc/os-release)" = "ID=\"centos\"" ] && [ "$(grep '^VERSION=' /etc/os-release)" = "VERSION=\"8\"" ]; then
+. /usr/lib/os-release
+if [ "$ID" = "centos" ] && [ "$VERSION" = "8" ]; then
     cat >"$BUILDDIR"/bpftool <<EOF
 #!/bin/sh
 if [ "\$1" = --version ]; then
@@ -44,7 +50,6 @@ fi
 if [ ! -f "$BUILDDIR"/build.ninja ]; then
     sysvinit_path=$(realpath /etc/init.d)
 
-    . /etc/os-release
     if [ "$ID" = "centos" ] && [ "$VERSION" = "8" ]; then
         UKIFY=false
     else
@@ -157,7 +162,7 @@ if [ ! -f "$BUILDDIR"/build.ninja ]; then
     # On debian-like systems the library directory is not /usr/lib64 but /usr/lib/<arch-triplet>/.
     # It is important to use the right one especially for cryptsetup plugins, otherwise they will be
     # installed in the wrong directory and not be found by cryptsetup. Assume native build.
-    if grep -q -e "ID=debian" -e "ID_LIKE=debian" /etc/os-release && command -v dpkg 2>/dev/null; then
+    if grep -q -e "ID=debian" -e "ID_LIKE=debian" /usr/lib/os-release && command -v dpkg 2>/dev/null; then
         CONFIGURE_OPTS+=(
             -D libdir="/usr/lib/$(dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)"
             -D pamlibdir="/usr/lib/$(dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)/security"
@@ -167,7 +172,7 @@ if [ ! -f "$BUILDDIR"/build.ninja ]; then
     # Set various uids and gids for which Fedora has "soft static" allocations.
     # Without this, we would get warning about mismatched sysusers.d entries
     # between the files that we and Fedora's setup package install.
-    if grep -q '^ID=fedora' /etc/os-release; then
+    if grep -q '^ID=fedora' /usr/lib/os-release; then
         CONFIGURE_OPTS+=(
             -Dadm-gid=4
             -Daudio-gid=63
@@ -192,7 +197,7 @@ if [ ! -f "$BUILDDIR"/build.ninja ]; then
         )
     fi
 
-    if grep -q '^ID="opensuse' /etc/os-release; then
+    if grep -q '^ID="opensuse' /usr/lib/os-release; then
         CONFIGURE_OPTS+=(
             -Dbpf-compiler=gcc
         )
diff --git a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf
index 69d1723ca10..eb67bfcf628 100644
--- a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf
+++ b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf
@@ -9,8 +9,7 @@ CleanPackageMetadata=no
 Packages=
         kmod
         less
-        systemd
-        udev
+        util-linux
 
 BuildPackages=
         acl
diff --git a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-arch.conf b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-arch.conf
index c9ecf353508..7ab0c712aec 100644
--- a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-arch.conf
+++ b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-arch.conf
@@ -5,16 +5,18 @@ Distribution=arch
 
 [Content]
 Packages=
+        cryptsetup
+        dbus
         gnutls
         libbpf
         libfido2
         libmicrohttpd
         libnftnl
         libpwquality
+        libseccomp
         libxkbcommon
         openssl
         qrencode
-        systemd-sysvcompat
         tpm2-tss
 
 BuildPackages=
diff --git a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-debian-ubuntu.conf b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-debian-ubuntu.conf
index 63b1daae0a5..5550511cf23 100644
--- a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-debian-ubuntu.conf
+++ b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-debian-ubuntu.conf
@@ -21,8 +21,6 @@ Packages=
         libqrencode4
         libssl3
         libtss2-dev # Use the -dev package to avoid churn in updating version numbers
-        systemd
-        systemd-sysv
         tzdata
 
 BuildPackages=
diff --git a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-opensuse.conf b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-opensuse.conf
index 85cb9e601a1..ec91b4901f2 100644
--- a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-opensuse.conf
+++ b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.conf.d/10-opensuse.conf
@@ -4,9 +4,12 @@
 Distribution=opensuse
 
 [Content]
-# We install gawk, gzip, grep, xz here explicitly so that the busybox versions don't get installed instead.
+# We install gawk, gzip, grep, xz, sed, rsync and docbook-xsl-stylesheets here explicitly so that the busybox
+# versions don't get installed instead.
 Packages=
         device-mapper
+        distribution-release
+        docbook-xsl-stylesheets
         gawk
         grep
         gzip
@@ -25,16 +28,16 @@ Packages=
         libp11-kit0
         libqrencode4
         libseccomp2
-        libxkbcommon0
-        libzstd1
-        pam
-        shadow
         libtss2-esys0
         libtss2-mu0
         libtss2-rc0
         libtss2-tcti-device0
-        # Workaround for CI issue with our stub getting overwritten
-        systemd-boot
+        libxkbcommon0
+        libzstd1
+        pam
+        rsync
+        sed
+        shadow
         tpm2-0-tss
         xz
 
@@ -43,7 +46,6 @@ BuildPackages=
         bpftool
         cross-bpf-gcc13
         dbus-1-devel
-        docbook-xsl-stylesheets
         fdupes
         gcc-c++
         glib2-devel
@@ -84,7 +86,6 @@ BuildPackages=
         python3-pytest-flakes
         qrencode-devel
         shadow
-        systemd-sysvinit
         timezone
         tpm2-0-tss-devel
         xen-devel
diff --git a/mkosi.presets/10-initrd/mkosi.conf b/mkosi.presets/10-initrd/mkosi.conf
index 77e4896c176..b672d7363b0 100644
--- a/mkosi.presets/10-initrd/mkosi.conf
+++ b/mkosi.presets/10-initrd/mkosi.conf
@@ -9,7 +9,11 @@ Format=cpio
 
 [Content]
 BaseTrees=../../mkosi.output/base
+ExtraTrees=../../mkosi.output/base-systemd
 MakeInitrd=yes
+Packages=
+        systemd
+        udev
 
 # Arch Linux doesn't split their gcc-libs package so we manually remove unneeded stuff here to make sure it
 # doesn't end up in the initrd.
diff --git a/mkosi.presets/20-final/mkosi.conf b/mkosi.presets/20-final/mkosi.conf
index 1277ad40349..e1579ad273a 100644
--- a/mkosi.presets/20-final/mkosi.conf
+++ b/mkosi.presets/20-final/mkosi.conf
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 [Content]
 Autologin=yes
 BaseTrees=../../mkosi.output/base
+ExtraTrees=../../mkosi.output/base-systemd
 ExtraTrees=../../src:/root/src
 Initrds=../../mkosi.output/initrd
 Packages=
@@ -28,8 +29,10 @@ Packages=
         sed
         socat
         strace
+        systemd
         tmux
         tree
+        udev
         util-linux
         valgrind
         wireguard-tools
diff --git a/mkosi.presets/20-final/mkosi.postinst b/mkosi.presets/20-final/mkosi.postinst
index 2fd45361376..3f3a78e9063 100755
--- a/mkosi.presets/20-final/mkosi.postinst
+++ b/mkosi.presets/20-final/mkosi.postinst
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ fi
 # Let tmpfiles.d/systemd-resolve.conf handle the symlink
 rm -f /etc/resolv.conf
 
-. /etc/os-release
+. /usr/lib/os-release
 
 if [ "$ID" = "centos" ] && [ "$VERSION" = "8" ]; then
     alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.9 1