diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yml b/.github/workflows/main.yml
index 6a35ba7..eb0632f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/main.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/main.yml
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           path: run_qemu
 
-      - name: apt get requirements
+      - name: apt install mkosi and run_qemu requirements
         run: |
           # update is required first, see
           # https://github.com/actions/runner-images/issues/2924
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ jobs:
           # run_qemu deps
           sudo apt install -y mkosi # this one pulls A LOT
           sudo apt install -y dracut-core qemu-utils ovmf mtools
+          pip3 install qemu.qmp
 
       - name: mkosi v20 fixes
         if: matrix.cfg.os  == 'ubuntu-24.04'
@@ -61,12 +62,17 @@ jobs:
           cd /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages
           sudo git apply "${{ github.workspace }}"/run_qemu/Patches/ubuntu/24.04/mkosi/*.patch
 
-      - name: apt get Ubuntu 24 requirements
+      - name: apt install Ubuntu 24 requirements for mkosi
         if: matrix.cfg.os  == 'ubuntu-24.04'
         run: |
            # systemd was monolithic in Ubunutu 22
            sudo apt install -y systemd-ukify systemd-boot
 
+      - name: apt install ndctl build dependencies
+        run: |
+           grep -vE '^[[:blank:]]*#' .github/workflows/ubuntu-ndctl-build-deps |
+                    xargs sudo apt install -y
+
       # argbash. TODO: mixing generated code and sources in the same git
       # repo is generally a bad idea but this particular one changes
       # rarely, so it should probably deserve an exception avoiding
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ubuntu-ndctl-build-deps b/.github/workflows/ubuntu-ndctl-build-deps
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49c31cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/ubuntu-ndctl-build-deps
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+# See  ndctl.git/ndctl.spec.in  and
+# `apt-rdepends --build-depends --follow=DEPENDS ndctl`
+
+meson
+ninja-build
+
+asciidoctor
+
+libtraceevent-dev
+libtracefs-dev
+
+libkmod-dev
+libudev-dev
+uuid-dev
+libjson-c-dev
+libkeyutils-dev
+libiniparser-dev
diff --git a/mkosi.ubuntu.default.tmpl b/mkosi.ubuntu.default.tmpl
index 776c7ab..d50d382 100644
--- a/mkosi.ubuntu.default.tmpl
+++ b/mkosi.ubuntu.default.tmpl
@@ -15,7 +15,9 @@ Packages=
   libkmod-dev
   libudev-dev
   uuid-dev
+  uuid-runtime
   libjson-c-dev
+  jq
   bash-completion
   libkeyutils-dev
   python3