diff --git a/nixos/tests/systemd-journal.nix b/nixos/tests/systemd-journal.nix
index c50c151ae10..b0a3f62ce1c 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/systemd-journal.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/systemd-journal.nix
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ import ./make-test-python.nix ({ pkgs, ... }:
   testScript = ''
     machine.wait_for_unit("multi-user.target")
 
+    machine.succeed("journalctl --grep=systemd")
+
     machine.succeed(
         "${pkgs.curl}/bin/curl -s localhost:19531/machine | ${pkgs.jq}/bin/jq -e '.hostname == \"machine\"'"
     )
diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/systemd/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/systemd/default.nix
index e6cb589c9bf..2822bffdb51 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/systemd/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/systemd/default.nix
@@ -160,6 +160,90 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
       --replace \
       "find_program('objcopy'" \
       "find_program('${stdenv.cc.bintools.targetPrefix}objcopy'"
+  '' + (let
+
+    # The folllowing dlopen patches ensure that all the features that are
+    # implemented via dlopen(3) are available (or explicitly deactivated) by
+    # pointing dlopen to the absolute store path instead of relying on the
+    # linkers runtime lookup code.
+    #
+    # All of the dlopen calls have to be handled. When new ones are introduced
+    # by upstream (or one of our patches) they must be explicitly declared,
+    # otherwise the build will fail.
+    #
+    # As of systemd version 247 we've seen a few errors like `libpcre2.… not
+    # found` when using e.g. --grep with journalctl. Those errors should
+    # become less unexpected now.
+    #
+    # There are generally two classes of dlopen(3) calls. Those that we want to
+    # support and those that should be deactivated / unsupported. This change
+    # enforces that we handle all dlopen calls explicitly. Meaning: There is
+    # not a single dlopen call in the source code tree that we did not
+    # explicitly handle.
+    #
+    # In order to do this we introduced a list of attributes that maps from
+    # shared object name to the package that contains them. The package can be
+    # null meaning the reference should be nuked and the shared object will
+    # never be loadable during runtime (because it points at an invalid store
+    # path location).
+    #
+    # To get a list of dynamically loaded libraries issue something like
+    # `grep -ri 'dlopen("lib' $src` and update the below list.
+    dlopenLibs = [
+      # We did never provide support for libxkbcommon & qrencode
+      { name = "libxkbcommon.so.0"; pkg = null; }
+      { name = "libqrencode.so.4"; pkg = null; }
+
+      # We did not provide libpwquality before so it is safe to disable it for
+      # now.
+      { name = "libpwquality.so.1"; pkg = null; }
+
+      # Only include cryptsetup if it is enabled. We might not be able to
+      # provide it during "bootstrap" in e.g. the minimal systemd build as
+      # cryptsetup has udev (aka systemd) in it's dependencies.
+      { name = "libcryptsetup.so.12"; pkg = if withCryptsetup then cryptsetup else null; }
+
+      # We are using libidn2 so we only provide that and ignore the others.
+      # Systemd does this decision during configure time and uses ifdef's to
+      # enable specific branches. We can safely ignore (nuke) the libidn "v1"
+      # libraries.
+      { name = "libidn2.so.0"; pkg = libidn2; }
+      { name = "libidn.so.12"; pkg = null; }
+      { name = "libidn.so.11"; pkg = null; }
+
+      # journalctl --grep requires libpcre so lets provide it
+      { name = "libpcre2-8.so.0"; pkg = pcre2; }
+    ];
+
+    patchDlOpen = dl: let
+      library = "${lib.makeLibraryPath [dl.pkg]}/${dl.name}";
+    in if dl.pkg == null then ''
+      # remove the dependency on the library by replacing it with an invalid path
+      for file in $(grep -lr 'dlopen("${dl.name}"' src); do
+        echo "patching dlopen(\"${dl.name}\", …) in $file to an invalid store path ("/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-not-implemented/${dl.name}")…"
+        substituteInPlace "$file" --replace 'dlopen("${dl.name}"' 'dlopen("/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-not-implemented/${dl.name}"'
+      done
+    '' else ''
+      # ensure that the library we provide actually exists
+      if ! [ -e ${library} ]; then
+        echo 'The shared library `${library}` does not exist but was given as subtitute for `${dl.name}`'
+        exit 1
+      fi
+      # make the path to the dependency explicit
+      for file in $(grep -lr 'dlopen("${dl.name}"' src); do
+        echo "patching dlopen(\"${dl.name}\", …) in $file to ${library}…"
+        substituteInPlace "$file" --replace 'dlopen("${dl.name}"' 'dlopen("${library}"'
+      done
+    '';
+  in # patch all the dlopen calls to contain absolute paths to the libraries
+  lib.concatMapStringsSep "\n" patchDlOpen dlopenLibs)
+  # finally ensure that there are no left-over dlopen calls that we didn't handle
+  + ''
+    if grep -qr 'dlopen("[^/]' src; then
+      echo "Found unhandled dlopen calls: "
+      grep -r 'dlopen("[^/]' src
+      exit 1
+    fi
   '';
 
   outputs = [ "out" "man" "dev" ];