diff --git a/.drone.yml b/.drone.yml
index 8761c30..de3dc0d 100644
--- a/.drone.yml
+++ b/.drone.yml
@@ -74,9 +74,14 @@ steps:
     -H "Content-Type: application/json"
     --data '{"type":"TXT","name":"'"$$DOMAIN"'","content":"v=spf1 a mx ip4:$machineip -all","ttl":18000,"priority":10,"proxied":false}'
 
-- name: sleep
+- name: wait for NixOS boot
+  environment:
+    DOMAIN:
+      from_secret: DOMAIN
+    TIMEOUT: 100
   commands:
-    - sleep 360
+    - sleep 300
+    - t0="$(date '+%s')"; until nix shell --inputs-from git+https://git.selfprivacy.org/alexoundos/selfprivacy-tests.git nixpkgs#netcat -c nc -zv -w1 "$DOMAIN" 443; do sleep 10; cur_date="$(date '+%s')"; remaining=$((t0 + TIMEOUT - cur_date)); [ "$remaining" -gt 0 ]; echo "$remaining seconds remain before teardown"; done
 
 - name: test
   environment: