diff --git a/mkosi.conf.d/10-debian-ubuntu/mkosi.prepare b/mkosi.conf.d/10-debian-ubuntu/mkosi.prepare
index ffff10d2a4..bf2c5eb91f 100755
--- a/mkosi.conf.d/10-debian-ubuntu/mkosi.prepare
+++ b/mkosi.conf.d/10-debian-ubuntu/mkosi.prepare
@@ -8,10 +8,23 @@ fi
 
 mapfile -t PACKAGES < <(jq --raw-output .VolatilePackages[] <"$MKOSI_CONFIG")
 
-apt-cache depends "${PACKAGES[@]}" |
-    grep --invert-match --regexp "<" --regexp "|" | # Remove e.g. <python3:any> and |dbus-broker like results
-    grep --extended-regexp --invert-match --regexp "$(IFS=\| ; echo "${PACKAGES[*]}")" |
-    grep --extended-regexp "Depends|Suggests|Recommends" |
-    sed --quiet 's/.*: //p' | # Get every line with ": " in it and strip it at the same time.
-    sort --unique |
-    xargs --delimiter '\n' --no-run-if-empty mkosi-install
+PATTERNS=()
+
+# The ?reverse-depends() pattern for some weird reason lists all the packages providing systemd-sysusers
+# instead of just excluding it, so we add another pattern to filter out anything that conflicts with
+# any other systemd packages so we filter out both opensysusers and systemd-sysusers-standalone. We also
+# exclude packages that belong to the systemd source package as we'll install these later. Finally, we
+# exclude virtual packages as trying to install these makes apt fail with an error saying we need to install
+# a specific implementation even if one is already installed.
+COMMON="?not(?virtual), ?not(?reverse-conflicts(?source-package(^systemd$))), ?not(?reverse-breaks(?source-package(^systemd$))), ?not(?source-package(^systemd$))"
+
+for PACKAGE in "${PACKAGES[@]}"; do
+    # Get all the dependencies of the systemd packages including recommended and suggested dependencies.
+    PATTERNS+=(
+        "?and(?reverse-depends(?exact-name($PACKAGE)), $COMMON)"
+        "?and(?reverse-recommends(?exact-name($PACKAGE)), $COMMON)"
+        "?and(?reverse-suggests(?exact-name($PACKAGE)), $COMMON)"
+    )
+done
+
+mkosi-install "${PATTERNS[@]}"