diff --git a/cmd/image-builder/main.go b/cmd/image-builder/main.go
index ac1ee3aa..590e18ec 100644
--- a/cmd/image-builder/main.go
+++ b/cmd/image-builder/main.go
@@ -189,6 +189,10 @@ func cmdManifestWrapper(pbar progress.ProgressBar, cmd *cobra.Command, args []st
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
+	bootcDefaultFs, err := cmd.Flags().GetString("bootc-default-fs")
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
 	var rpmDownloader osbuild.RpmDownloader
 	if useLibrepo {
 		rpmDownloader = osbuild.RpmDownloaderLibrepo
@@ -255,7 +259,7 @@ func cmdManifestWrapper(pbar progress.ProgressBar, cmd *cobra.Command, args []st
 
 	var img *imagefilter.Result
 	if bootcRef != "" {
-		distro, err := bootc.NewBootcDistro(bootcRef, nil)
+		distro, err := bootc.NewBootcDistro(bootcRef, &bootc.DistroOptions{DefaultFs: bootcDefaultFs})
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
@@ -556,6 +560,7 @@ operating systems like Fedora, CentOS and RHEL with easy customizations support.
 	manifestCmd.Flags().String("bootc-ref", "", `bootc container ref`)
 	manifestCmd.Flags().String("bootc-build-ref", "", `bootc build container ref`)
 	manifestCmd.Flags().String("bootc-installer-payload-ref", "", `bootc installer payload ref`)
+	manifestCmd.Flags().String("bootc-default-fs", "", `default filesystem to use for the bootc install (e.g. ext4)`)
 	manifestCmd.Flags().Bool("use-librepo", true, `use librepo to download packages (disable if you use old versions of osbuild)`)
 	manifestCmd.Flags().Bool("with-sbom", false, `export SPDX SBOM document`)
 	manifestCmd.Flags().Bool("ignore-warnings", false, `ignore warnings during manifest generation`)
diff --git a/test/test_manifest.py b/test/test_manifest.py
index ab5d9df0..c77891d8 100644
--- a/test/test_manifest.py
+++ b/test/test_manifest.py
@@ -161,3 +161,28 @@ def test_manifest_honors_rpmmd_cache(tmp_path, build_container):
         "--rpmmd-cache", "/rpmmd_cache",
     ], text=True)
     assert len(list(rpmmd_cache.rglob("repomd.xml"))) > 0
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("bootc_ref,defaultfs", [
+    ("quay.io/fedora/fedora-bootc:42", "ext4"),
+    ("quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream10", ""),
+    ("quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream9", ""),
+])
+def test_container_manifest_bootc_smoke(build_container, bootc_ref, defaultfs):
+    subprocess.check_call(["podman", "pull", bootc_ref])
+    bootc_default_fs = []
+    if defaultfs:
+        bootc_default_fs = ["--bootc-default-fs", defaultfs]
+    output = subprocess.check_output(podman_run + [
+        build_container,
+        "manifest",
+        "qcow2",
+        "--bootc-ref", bootc_ref,
+    ] + bootc_default_fs, text=True)
+    manifest = json.loads(output)
+    assert manifest["version"] == "2"
+    if defaultfs:
+        pipeline = [p for p in manifest["pipelines"] if p["name"] == "image"][0]
+        mkfs_stages = [st for st in pipeline["stages"]
+                       if st["type"] == f"org.osbuild.mkfs.{defaultfs}"]
+        assert mkfs_stages