diff --git a/nix/kexec-installer/module.nix b/nix/kexec-installer/module.nix
index 4bd1511..2e865bd 100644
--- a/nix/kexec-installer/module.nix
+++ b/nix/kexec-installer/module.nix
@@ -1,7 +1,14 @@
 { config, lib, modulesPath, pkgs, ... }:
 let
-  restore-network = pkgs.writers.writePython3Bin "restore-network" { flakeIgnore = [ "E501" ]; }
-    ./restore_routes.py;
+  writePython3 = pkgs.writers.makePythonWriter
+    pkgs.python3Minimal pkgs.python3Packages pkgs.buildPackages.python3Packages;
+
+  # writePython3Bin takes the same arguments as writePython3 but outputs a directory (like writeScriptBin)
+  writePython3Bin = name: writePython3 "/bin/${name}";
+
+  restore-network = writePython3Bin "restore-network" {
+     flakeIgnore = [ "E501" ];
+  } ./restore_routes.py;
 
   # does not link with iptables enabled
   iprouteStatic = pkgs.pkgsStatic.iproute2.override { iptables = null; };
diff --git a/nix/noninteractive.nix b/nix/noninteractive.nix
index 0af2458..41ae548 100644
--- a/nix/noninteractive.nix
+++ b/nix/noninteractive.nix
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
   imports = [
     ./zfs-minimal.nix
     ./no-bootloaders.nix
+    ./python-minimal.nix
     ./noveau-workaround.nix
     # reduce closure size by removing perl
     "${modulesPath}/profiles/perlless.nix"
diff --git a/nix/python-minimal.nix b/nix/python-minimal.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6ef3cc0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nix/python-minimal.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+{
+  nixpkgs.overlays = [
+    (final: prev: {
+      bcachefs-tools = prev.bcachefs-tools.overrideAttrs (old: {
+        python3 = prev.python3Minimal;
+      });
+      cifs-utils = prev.cifs-utils.overrideAttrs (old: {
+        python3 = prev.python3Minimal;
+      });
+      nfs-utils = prev.nfs-utils.overrideAttrs (old: {
+        python3 = prev.python3Minimal;
+      });
+    })
+  ];
+}
diff --git a/nix/zfs-minimal.nix b/nix/zfs-minimal.nix
index 62a587f..855722f 100644
--- a/nix/zfs-minimal.nix
+++ b/nix/zfs-minimal.nix
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ let
   zfs = pkgs.zfsUnstable.override {
     # this overrides saves 10MB
     samba = pkgs.coreutils;
+
+    python3 = pkgs.python3Minimal;
   };
 in
 {