diff --git a/nixos/tests/k3s/default.nix b/nixos/tests/k3s/default.nix
index 4ee3cb760b399..5240f029139fb 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/k3s/default.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/k3s/default.nix
@@ -4,9 +4,11 @@
   lib ? pkgs.lib,
 }:
 let
-  allK3s = lib.filterAttrs (n: _: lib.strings.hasPrefix "k3s_" n) pkgs;
+  allK3s = lib.filterAttrs (
+    n: _: lib.strings.hasPrefix "k3s_" n && (builtins.tryEval pkgs.${n}).success
+  ) pkgs;
 in
-{
+lib.recurseIntoAttrs {
   airgap-images = lib.mapAttrs (
     _: k3s: import ./airgap-images.nix { inherit system pkgs k3s; }
   ) allK3s;
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/cluster/k3s/builder.nix b/pkgs/applications/networking/cluster/k3s/builder.nix
index fdd70a653ee55..8cbb824230f01 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/networking/cluster/k3s/builder.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/cluster/k3s/builder.nix
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ lib:
   ethtool,
   fetchFromGitHub,
   fetchgit,
+  fetchpatch,
   fetchurl,
   fetchzip,
   findutils,
@@ -69,7 +70,7 @@ lib:
   sqlite,
   stdenv,
   systemd,
-  util-linux,
+  util-linuxMinimal,
   yq-go,
   zstd,
 }:
@@ -331,6 +332,17 @@ let
       ldflags = versionldflags;
     }).overrideAttrs
       overrideContainerdAttrs;
+
+  # TODO (#405952): remove this patch. We had to add it to avoid a mass rebuild
+  # for the 25.05 release. Once the above PR is merged, switch back to plain util-linuxMinimal.
+  k3sUtilLinux = util-linuxMinimal.overrideAttrs (prev: {
+    patches =
+      prev.patches or [ ]
+      ++ lib.singleton (fetchpatch {
+        url = "https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/commit/7dbfe31a83f45d5aef2b508697e9511c569ffbc8.patch";
+        hash = "sha256-bJqpZiPli5Pm/XpDA445Ab5jesXrlcnaO6e4V0B3rSw=";
+      });
+  });
 in
 buildGoModule rec {
   pname = "k3s";
@@ -377,7 +389,7 @@ buildGoModule rec {
     ipset
     bridge-utils
     ethtool
-    util-linux # kubelet wants 'nsenter' from util-linux: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/26093#issuecomment-705994388
+    k3sUtilLinux # kubelet wants 'nsenter' and 'mount' from util-linux: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/26093#issuecomment-705994388
     conntrack-tools
     runc
     bash