diff --git a/nixos/modules/system/boot/systemd/initrd.nix b/nixos/modules/system/boot/systemd/initrd.nix
index 7abba80fbefb..7a4648b45612 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/system/boot/systemd/initrd.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/system/boot/systemd/initrd.nix
@@ -518,7 +518,7 @@ in {
               case $o in
                   init=*)
                       IFS== read -r -a initParam <<< "$o"
-                      closure="$(dirname "''${initParam[1]}")"
+                      closure="''${initParam[1]}"
                       ;;
               esac
           done
@@ -529,6 +529,13 @@ in {
             exit 1
           fi
 
+          # Resolve symlinks in the init parameter. We need this for some boot loaders
+          # (e.g. boot.loader.generationsDir).
+          closure="$(chroot /sysroot ${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/realpath "$closure")"
+
+          # Assume the directory containing the init script is the closure.
+          closure="$(dirname "$closure")"
+
           # If we are not booting a NixOS closure (e.g. init=/bin/sh),
           # we don't know what root to prepare so we don't do anything
           if ! [ -x "/sysroot$(readlink "/sysroot$closure/prepare-root" || echo "$closure/prepare-root")" ]; then