diff --git a/lib/images/linux/debian/templates.nix b/lib/images/linux/debian/templates.nix
index 1fffeb3..af90a77 100644
--- a/lib/images/linux/debian/templates.nix
+++ b/lib/images/linux/debian/templates.nix
@@ -50,11 +50,18 @@ with scriptsNFiles;
       # proxmox makes it very hard to manually add interfaces directly on /etc/network/interfaces while the pve services are not running
       # it also doesn't pick up files in interfaces.d
       # so manually do that via service after boot
+      # After= must live in [Unit] — in [Service] systemd ignores it, leaving the
+      # merge/ifreload racing networking.service (and ifreload fails outright if it
+      # runs before /run/network exists, see ifupdown2#276).
       mergeNetIfacesDService = pkgs.writeText "manual-net-ifaces.d.service" ''
+        [Unit]
+        After = networking.service
+        Wants = networking.service
+
         [Service]
         Type = oneshot
+        ExecStartPre = /bin/mkdir -p /run/network
         ExecStart = /bin/bash -c "cat /etc/network/interfaces.d/* >> /etc/network/interfaces; rm /etc/network/interfaces.d/*; ifreload -a;"
-        After = network.target
 
         [Install]
         WantedBy = multi-user.target