diff --git a/pkg/daemon/daemon.go b/pkg/daemon/daemon.go
index 432737098f..d5708ac77c 100644
--- a/pkg/daemon/daemon.go
+++ b/pkg/daemon/daemon.go
@@ -1400,6 +1400,10 @@ func (dn *Daemon) checkStateOnFirstRun() error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("error detecting previous SSH accesses: %w", err)
 	}
 
+	if err := dn.removeRollback(); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("Failed to remove rollback: %w", err)
+	}
+
 	// Bootstrapping state is when we have the node annotations file
 	if state.bootstrapping {
 		targetOSImageURL := state.currentConfig.Spec.OSImageURL
diff --git a/pkg/daemon/update.go b/pkg/daemon/update.go
index 2618304126..2e38e44beb 100644
--- a/pkg/daemon/update.go
+++ b/pkg/daemon/update.go
@@ -689,6 +689,20 @@ func (dn *Daemon) updateHypershift(oldConfig, newConfig *mcfgv1.MachineConfig, d
 	return nil
 }
 
+// removeRollback removes the rpm-ostree rollback deployment.
+// It takes up space and can cause issues when /boot contains multiple
+// initramfs images: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2104619.
+// We don't generally expect administrators to use this versus e.g. removing
+// broken configuration. We only remove the rollback once the MCD pod has
+// landed on a node, so we know kubelet is working.
+func (dn *Daemon) removeRollback() error {
+	if !dn.os.IsCoreOSVariant() {
+		// do not attempt to rollback on non-RHCOS/FCOS machines
+		return nil
+	}
+	return runRpmOstree("cleanup", "-r")
+}
+
 // machineConfigDiff represents an ad-hoc difference between two MachineConfig objects.
 // At some point this may change into holding just the files/units that changed
 // and the MCO would just operate on that.  For now we're just doing this to get
diff --git a/test/e2e-shared-tests/helpers.go b/test/e2e-shared-tests/helpers.go
index 14a6c44cd3..665293e51d 100644
--- a/test/e2e-shared-tests/helpers.go
+++ b/test/e2e-shared-tests/helpers.go
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/openshift/machine-config-operator/pkg/daemon/constants"
 	"github.com/openshift/machine-config-operator/test/framework"
 	"github.com/openshift/machine-config-operator/test/helpers"
-	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 	kubeErrs "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/errors"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/wait"
@@ -21,22 +20,6 @@ import (
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 )
 
-func assertKernelArgsEqual(t *testing.T, cs *framework.ClientSet, target corev1.Node, startKargs string, expectedKargs []string) {
-	t.Helper()
-
-	kargs := getKernelArgs(t, cs, target)
-
-	for _, karg := range expectedKargs {
-		assert.Contains(t, kargs, karg, "Missing karg %s", karg)
-	}
-
-	assert.Equal(t, kargs, startKargs)
-}
-
-func getKernelArgs(t *testing.T, cs *framework.ClientSet, target corev1.Node) string {
-	return helpers.ExecCmdOnNode(t, cs, target, "cat", "/proc/cmdline")
-}
-
 func waitForConfigDriftMonitorStart(t *testing.T, cs *framework.ClientSet, node corev1.Node) {
 	t.Helper()
 
diff --git a/test/e2e-shared-tests/mcd_config_drift.go b/test/e2e-shared-tests/mcd_config_drift.go
index edfba03c25..e70c602a84 100644
--- a/test/e2e-shared-tests/mcd_config_drift.go
+++ b/test/e2e-shared-tests/mcd_config_drift.go
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ func (c configDriftTest) getMachineConfig(t *testing.T) *mcfgv1.MachineConfig {
 		[]ign3types.SSHAuthorizedKey{},
 		[]string{},
 		false,
-		[]string{"foo=bar", "foo=baz"},
+		[]string{},
 		"",
 		"",
 	)
@@ -164,12 +164,6 @@ func (c configDriftTest) Teardown(t *testing.T) {
 
 // Runs the Config Drift Test
 func (c configDriftTest) Run(t *testing.T) {
-	// Get our kernel args for future verification
-	kargs := getKernelArgs(t, c.ClientSet, c.node)
-
-	// Check that we have our kernel args pre-test
-	assertKernelArgsEqual(t, c.ClientSet, c.node, kargs, c.mc.Spec.KernelArguments)
-
 	testCases := []struct {
 		name           string
 		rebootExpected bool
@@ -238,9 +232,6 @@ func (c configDriftTest) Run(t *testing.T) {
 
 			testCase.testFunc(t)
 
-			// Ensure that we have our kernel args post-test
-			assertKernelArgsEqual(t, c.ClientSet, c.node, kargs, c.mc.Spec.KernelArguments)
-
 			// Verify our reboot expectations
 			if testCase.rebootExpected {
 				helpers.AssertNodeReboot(t, c.ClientSet, c.node, initialUptime)