diff --git a/tests/nixos/nix-copy.nix b/tests/nixos/nix-copy.nix
index 44aa0b7da..bb4363021 100644
--- a/tests/nixos/nix-copy.nix
+++ b/tests/nixos/nix-copy.nix
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ in {
         { services.openssh.enable = true;
           services.openssh.settings.PermitRootLogin = "yes";
           users.users.root.hashedPasswordFile = lib.mkForce null;
-          users.users.root.password = "foobar";
           virtualisation.writableStore = true;
           virtualisation.additionalPaths = [ pkgB pkgC ];
         };
@@ -59,34 +58,33 @@ in {
     client.succeed("systemctl start network-online.target")
     server.wait_for_unit("network-online.target")
     client.wait_for_unit("network-online.target")
+    server.wait_for_unit("multi-user.target")
+    client.wait_for_unit("multi-user.target")
 
     server.wait_for_unit("sshd.service")
-    client.wait_for_unit("getty@tty1.service")
-    # Either the prompt: ]#
-    # or an OCR misreading of it: 1#
-    client.wait_for_text("[]1]#")
 
     # Copy the closure of package A from the client to the server using password authentication,
     # and check that all prompts are visible
+    # NOTE: this used to also check password prompts, but the test implementation was monumentally
+    # fragile (and hence broke constantly). since ssh interacts with /dev/tty directly fixing this
+    # requires some proper cli automation, which we do not have. however, since ssh interacts with
+    # /dev/tty directly and the host key message goes there too, we don't even need to check this.
     server.fail("nix-store --check-validity ${pkgA}")
-    client.send_chars("nix copy --to ssh://server ${pkgA} >&2; echo done\n")
-    client.wait_for_text("continue connecting")
-    client.send_chars("yes\n")
-    client.wait_for_text("Password:")
-    client.send_chars("foobar\n")
-    client.wait_for_text("done")
-    server.succeed("nix-store --check-validity ${pkgA}")
-
-    # Check that ControlMaster is working
-    client.send_chars("nix copy --to ssh://server ${pkgA} >&2; echo done\n")
-    client.wait_for_text("done")
-
-    client.copy_from_host("key", "/root/.ssh/id_ed25519")
-    client.succeed("chmod 600 /root/.ssh/id_ed25519")
+    client.succeed("echo | script -f /dev/stdout -c 'nix copy --to ssh://server ${pkgA}' | grep 'continue connecting'")
 
+    client.copy_from_host("key", "/root/.ssh/id_ed25519.setup")
+    client.succeed("chmod 600 /root/.ssh/id_ed25519.setup")
     # Install the SSH key on the server.
     server.copy_from_host("key.pub", "/root/.ssh/authorized_keys")
     server.succeed("systemctl restart sshd")
+
+    client.succeed("NIX_SSHOPTS='-oStrictHostKeyChecking=no -i /root/.ssh/id_ed25519.setup' nix copy --to ssh://server ${pkgA}")
+    server.succeed("nix-store --check-validity ${pkgA}")
+    # Check that ControlMaster is working
+    client.succeed("nix copy --to ssh://server ${pkgA}")
+
+    client.succeed("cp /root/.ssh/id_ed25519.setup /root/.ssh/id_ed25519")
+
     client.succeed(f"ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no {server.name} 'echo hello world' >&2")
     client.succeed(f"ssh -O check {server.name}")
     client.succeed(f"ssh -O exit {server.name}")