diff --git a/.github/workflows/mkosi.yml b/.github/workflows/mkosi.yml
index c0f54d8da4..9010b1fcb7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/mkosi.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/mkosi.yml
@@ -87,7 +87,6 @@ jobs:
 
         [Content]
         Environment=CI_BUILD=1
-                    DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_SEC=180
                     SLOW_TESTS=true
 
         [Output]
@@ -95,6 +94,8 @@ jobs:
                                systemd.journald.max_level_console=debug
                                # udev's debug log output is very verbose, so up it to info in CI.
                                udev.log_level=info
+                               # Root device can take a long time to appear, so let's bump the timeout.
+                               systemd.default_device_timeout_sec=180
 
         [Host]
         ExtraSearchPaths=!*
diff --git a/mkosi.conf.d/10-systemd.conf b/mkosi.conf.d/10-systemd.conf
index 09e8c5c3f1..78b438b5db 100644
--- a/mkosi.conf.d/10-systemd.conf
+++ b/mkosi.conf.d/10-systemd.conf
@@ -36,3 +36,6 @@ KernelCommandLineExtra=systemd.crash_shell
                        systemd.wants=network-online.target
                        # Make sure we don't load vmw_vmci which messes with virtio vsock.
                        module_blacklist=vmw_vmci
+                       # Lower the default device timeout so we get a shell earlier if the root device does
+                       # not appear for some reason.
+                       systemd.default_device_timeout_sec=10
diff --git a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.build b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.build
index 11e8b1c812..eb18d27577 100755
--- a/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.build
+++ b/mkosi.presets/00-base/mkosi.build
@@ -51,8 +51,6 @@ if [ ! -f "$BUILDDIR"/build.ninja ]; then
     CONFIGURE_OPTS=(
         -D sysvinit-path="$sysvinit_path"
         -D rootprefix="$rootprefix"
-        -D default-timeout-sec="${DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_SEC:-10}"
-        -D default-user-timeout-sec="${DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_SEC:-10}"
         -D man=false
         -D translations=false
         -D version-tag="${VERSION_TAG}"