diff --git a/nixos/modules/system/boot/stage-1-init.sh b/nixos/modules/system/boot/stage-1-init.sh
index c4a21b02cac3..15586e68e7e5 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/system/boot/stage-1-init.sh
+++ b/nixos/modules/system/boot/stage-1-init.sh
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ echo
 mkdir -p /etc
 touch /etc/fstab # to shut up mount
 touch /etc/mtab # to shut up mke2fs
+touch /etc/initrd-release
 mkdir -p /proc
 mount -t proc none /proc
 mkdir -p /sys
@@ -345,8 +346,8 @@ exec 3>&-
 udevadm control --exit || true
 
 # Kill any remaining processes, just to be sure we're not taking any
-# with us into stage 2. unionfs-fuse mounts require the unionfs process.
-pkill -9 -v '(1|unionfs)'
+# with us into stage 2. But keep storage daemons like unionfs-fuse.
+pkill -9 -v -f '@'
 
 
 if test -n "$debug1mounts"; then fail; fi
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/filesystems/unionfs-fuse/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/filesystems/unionfs-fuse/default.nix
index 4da1a84e937a..bff5aaf242ba 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/filesystems/unionfs-fuse/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/filesystems/unionfs-fuse/default.nix
@@ -8,6 +8,14 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "0qpnr4czgc62vsfnmv933w62nq3xwcbnvqch72qakfgca75rsp4d";
   };
 
+  patches =
+    [ # Prevent the unionfs daemon from being killed during
+      # shutdown. See
+      # http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/RootStorageDaemons/
+      # for details.
+      ./prevent-kill-on-shutdown.patch
+    ];
+
   buildInputs = [ cmake fuse ];
 
   # Put the unionfs mount helper in place as mount.unionfs-fuse. This makes it
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/filesystems/unionfs-fuse/prevent-kill-on-shutdown.patch b/pkgs/tools/filesystems/unionfs-fuse/prevent-kill-on-shutdown.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0a98b83282b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/tools/filesystems/unionfs-fuse/prevent-kill-on-shutdown.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+diff -ru -x '*~' unionfs-fuse-0.26-orig/src/unionfs.c unionfs-fuse-0.26/src/unionfs.c
+--- unionfs-fuse-0.26-orig/src/unionfs.c	2012-09-11 00:06:32.000000000 +0200
++++ unionfs-fuse-0.26/src/unionfs.c	2014-05-21 14:22:03.597861805 +0200
+@@ -831,6 +831,10 @@
+ 	}
+ #endif
+ 
++	/* Prevent systemd's shutdown from killing us. */
++	if (access("/etc/initrd-release", F_OK) >= 0)
++		argv[0][0] = '@';
++
+ 	umask(0);
+ 	int res = fuse_main(args.argc, args.argv, &unionfs_oper, NULL);
+ 	RETURN(uopt.doexit ? uopt.retval : res);