diff --git a/internal/cli/banger.go b/internal/cli/banger.go
index 606a773..dccda53 100644
--- a/internal/cli/banger.go
+++ b/internal/cli/banger.go
@@ -421,6 +421,21 @@ func runInternalMakeBundle(cmd *cobra.Command, opts internalMakeBundleOpts) erro
 		return fmt.Errorf("flatten rootfs: %w", err)
 	}
 
+	// docker create drops /.dockerenv (and containerd drops
+	// /run/.containerenv) into the container's writable layer, so
+	// `docker export` includes them in the tar. systemd-detect-virt
+	// reads those files and flags the boot as virtualization=docker,
+	// which disables udev device-unit activation (including the work-
+	// disk dev-vdb.device) and leaves systemd waiting forever. Strip
+	// them before building the ext4.
+	for _, marker := range []string{".dockerenv", "run/.containerenv"} {
+		path := filepath.Join(rootfsTree, marker)
+		if err := os.Remove(path); err != nil && !os.IsNotExist(err) {
+			return fmt.Errorf("strip %s: %w", marker, err)
+		}
+		delete(meta.Entries, marker)
+	}
+
 	if sizeBytes <= 0 {
 		treeSize, err := dirSize(rootfsTree)
 		if err != nil {