diff --git a/fill-disk.sh b/fill-disk.sh
index cfa52a5aa29c..ad50100ddd5c 100755
--- a/fill-disk.sh
+++ b/fill-disk.sh
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ export NIX_DATA_DIR=$root/nix/share
 export NIX_LOG_DIR=$root/nix/log/nix
 export NIX_STATE_DIR=$root/nix/var/nix
 export NIX_CONF_DIR=$root/nix/etc
-NIX_CMD_PATH=@NIX_CMD_PATH@/bin
+NIX_CMD_PATH=@nix@/bin
 
 echo initialising Nix DB...
 $NIX_CMD_PATH/nix-store --init
@@ -265,6 +265,7 @@ tar cf - /nix/store | tar --directory=$root -xvf -
 echo registering valid paths...
 
 $NIX_CMD_PATH/nix-store --register-validity < $root/tmp/mystorepaths
+$NIX_CMD_PATH/nix-env -iKf /nixpkgs/trunk/pkgs/system/i686-linux.nix nix
 
 echo setting init symlink...
 rm -f $root/init
@@ -297,6 +298,9 @@ echo "root:x:0:root" > $root/etc/group
 echo "root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/sh" > $root/etc/passwd
 echo "root::12757:0:99999:7:::" > $root/etc/shadow
 
+echo default profile for root
+echo "source @nix@/etc/profile.d/nix.sh" > $root/root/.profile
+
 ###
 ### Do kernel stuff here.
 ###
diff --git a/howto b/howto
index 13b8aa3b8bf7..640f2b1a0a29 100644
--- a/howto
+++ b/howto
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ is the e1000 driver:
 
 # modprobe e1000
 
+In vmware the driver is "pcnet32".
+
 - bring the interface up:
 
 # ifconfig eth0 up
diff --git a/make-disk.sh b/make-disk.sh
index 6e87f0e488ff..831c2eed7a35 100755
--- a/make-disk.sh
+++ b/make-disk.sh
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ sed -e "s^@bash\@^$bash^g" \
 mv $initscript.tmp $initscript
 sed -e "s^@sysvinitPath\@^$sysvinitPath^g" \
     -e "s^@bootPath\@^$bootPath^g" \
-    -e "s^@NIX_CMD_PATH\@^$nix^g" \
+    -e "s^@nix\@^$nix^g" \
     -e "s^@bash\@^$bash^g" \
     -e "s^@findutils\@^$findutils^g" \
     -e "s^@coreutilsdiet\@^$coreutilsdiet^g" \