diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/system/nscd.nix b/nixos/modules/services/system/nscd.nix
index f357eb4e1fc8..1ac82064a1f7 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/system/nscd.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/system/nscd.nix
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ let
 
   inherit (pkgs.lib) singleton;
 
+  cfgFile = pkgs.writeText "nscd.conf" cfg.config;
+
 in
 
 {
@@ -63,7 +65,7 @@ in
         restartTriggers = [ config.environment.etc.hosts.source ];
 
         serviceConfig =
-          { ExecStart = "@${pkgs.glibc}/sbin/nscd nscd -f ${pkgs.writeText "nscd.conf" cfg.config}";
+          { ExecStart = "@${pkgs.glibc}/sbin/nscd nscd -f ${cfgFile}";
             Type = "forking";
             PIDFile = "/run/nscd/nscd.pid";
             Restart = "always";
@@ -73,6 +75,15 @@ in
                 "${pkgs.glibc}/sbin/nscd --invalidate hosts"
               ];
           };
+
+        # Urgggggh... Nscd forks before opening its socket and writing
+        # its pid. So wait until it's ready.
+        postStart =
+          ''
+            while ! ${pkgs.glibc}/sbin/nscd -g -f ${cfgFile} > /dev/null; do
+              sleep 0.2
+            done
+          '';
       };
 
   };
diff --git a/nixos/tests/misc.nix b/nixos/tests/misc.nix
index 031fff2de585..24c8b230629c 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/misc.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/misc.nix
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ import ./make-test.nix {
 
   testScript =
     ''
+      $machine->waitForUnit("default.target");
+
       subtest "nixos-version", sub {
           $machine->succeed("[ `nixos-version | wc -w` = 2 ]");
       };
@@ -61,8 +63,6 @@ import ./make-test.nix {
 
       # Test whether hostname (and by extension nss_myhostname) works.
       subtest "hostname", sub {
-          $machine->waitForUnit("dhcpcd.service");
-          $machine->waitForUnit("network.target");
           $machine->succeed('[ "`hostname`" = machine ]');
           $machine->succeed('[ "`hostname -s`" = machine ]');
       };