diff --git a/etc/security-misc/emerg-shutdown/30_security_misc.conf b/etc/security-misc/emerg-shutdown/30_security_misc.conf
index 904610b..4ec6cbd 100644
--- a/etc/security-misc/emerg-shutdown/30_security_misc.conf
+++ b/etc/security-misc/emerg-shutdown/30_security_misc.conf
@@ -22,13 +22,13 @@ EMERG_SHUTDOWN_KEYS="KEY_LEFTCTRL|KEY_RIGHTCTRL,KEY_LEFTALT|KEY_RIGHTALT,KEY_DEL
 ## Set the maximum number of seconds shutdown can take. If shutdown gets stuck
 ## for longer than this, the system will forcibly power down.
 ##
-## NOTE: This requires ensure-shutdown.service to be enabled, which is not
-## done by default. Enabling ensure-shutdown.service will cause shutdown to
-## always take at least as long as systemd's DefaultTimeoutStopSec (which by
-## default is 90 seconds). If you are going to enable ensure-shutdown.service,
-## it is highly recommended to set DefaultTimeoutStopSec to a much smaller
-## value, such as 5 seconds. The maximum shutdown time set here should be at
-## least 10 seconds *longer* than DefaultTimeoutStopSec, to give normal
-## shutdown a chance to actually succeed before forcibly shutting down the
-## system.
+## NOTE: This requires ensure-shutdown.service and
+## ensure-shutdown-trigger.service to be enabled, which is not done by
+## default. Enabling ensure-shutdown.service will cause shutdown to always
+## take at least as long as systemd's DefaultTimeoutStopSec (which by default
+## is 90 seconds). If you are going to enable ensure-shutdown.service, it is
+## highly recommended to set DefaultTimeoutStopSec to a much smaller value,
+## such as 5 seconds. The maximum shutdown time set here should be at least 10
+## seconds *longer* than DefaultTimeoutStopSec, to give normal shutdown a
+## chance to actually succeed before forcibly shutting down the system.
 ENSURE_SHUTDOWN_TIMEOUT=30
diff --git a/usr/lib/systemd/system-preset/50-security-misc.preset b/usr/lib/systemd/system-preset/50-security-misc.preset
index 004563c..4b44458 100644
--- a/usr/lib/systemd/system-preset/50-security-misc.preset
+++ b/usr/lib/systemd/system-preset/50-security-misc.preset
@@ -21,3 +21,4 @@ disable harden-module-loading.service
 ## Disable due to timing difficulties. See:
 ## https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/38261#issuecomment-3134580852
 disable ensure-shutdown.service
+disable ensure-shutdown-trigger.service
diff --git a/usr/lib/systemd/system/block-shutdown.service b/usr/lib/systemd/system/block-shutdown.service
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3d4be21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/usr/lib/systemd/system/block-shutdown.service
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2019 - 2025 ENCRYPTED SUPPORT LLC <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+## See the file COPYING for copying conditions.
+
+## This unit, if uncommented and started, will prevent the system from ever
+## shutting down unless ensure-shutdown.service is enabled and correctly
+## configured. If you have enabled ensure-shutdown.service and tuned the
+## ENSURE_SHUTDOWN_TIMEOUT and DefaultTimeoutStopSec variables (in
+## /etc/security-misc/emerg-shutdown/30_security_misc.conf and
+## /etc/systemd/system.conf respectively) and want to make sure
+## ensure-shutdown.service actually works, you can uncomment this unit and
+## start it with `sudo systemctl start block-shutdown.service`. If the systems
+## successfully powers down even with this unit started,
+## ensure-shutdown.service is working.
+
+# [Unit]
+# Description=Blocks shutdown indefinitely unless ensure-shutdown.service is enabled
+#
+# [Service]
+# Type=exec
+# ExecStart=bash -c -- "trap '' SIGTERM; sleep infinity"
+# KillSignal=SIGTERM
+# FinalKillSignal=SIGTERM
+# RestartKillSignal=SIGTERM
+# WatchdogSignal=SIGTERM
+# SendSIGHUP=no
+# TimeoutStopSec=infinity
+#
+# [Install]
+# WantedBy=multi-user.target
diff --git a/usr/lib/systemd/system/emerg-shutdown.service b/usr/lib/systemd/system/emerg-shutdown.service
index 0eb4258..fa0dd62 100644
--- a/usr/lib/systemd/system/emerg-shutdown.service
+++ b/usr/lib/systemd/system/emerg-shutdown.service
@@ -4,6 +4,12 @@
 [Unit]
 Description=Emergency shutdown when boot media is removed
 Documentation=https://github.com/Kicksecure/security-misc
+DefaultDependencies=no
+Before=sysinit.target
+Requires=udev.service
+After=udev.service
+Requires=local-fs.service
+After=local-fs.service
 
 [Service]
 Type=notify
@@ -11,4 +17,4 @@ ExecStart=/usr/libexec/security-misc/emerg-shutdown
 NotifyAccess=main
 
 [Install]
-WantedBy=multi-user.target
+WantedBy=sysinit.target
diff --git a/usr/lib/systemd/system/ensure-shutdown-trigger.service b/usr/lib/systemd/system/ensure-shutdown-trigger.service
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0945e43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/usr/lib/systemd/system/ensure-shutdown-trigger.service
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2025 - 2025 ENCRYPTED SUPPORT LLC <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+## See the file COPYING for copying conditions.
+
+## NOTE: If enabling this unit, also enable ensure-shutdown.service, otherwise
+## this will do nothing.
+
+[Unit]
+Description=Forcibly shut down the system if normal shutdown gets stuck (alternate trigger unit)
+Documentation=https://github.com/Kicksecure/security-misc
+
+[Service]
+Type=oneshot
+RemainAfterExit=true
+ExecStart=true
+ExecStop=bash -c -- 'echo "d" > /run/emerg-shutdown-trigger'
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target
diff --git a/usr/lib/systemd/system/ensure-shutdown.service b/usr/lib/systemd/system/ensure-shutdown.service
index 30bcc23..52eb487 100644
--- a/usr/lib/systemd/system/ensure-shutdown.service
+++ b/usr/lib/systemd/system/ensure-shutdown.service
@@ -1,9 +1,16 @@
 ## Copyright (C) 2025 - 2025 ENCRYPTED SUPPORT LLC <adrelanos@whonix.org>
 ## See the file COPYING for copying conditions.
 
+## NOTE: If enabling this unit, also enable ensure-shutdown-trigger.service,
+## otherwise this will likely be unable to unstick a stuck shutdown.
+
 [Unit]
 Description=Forcibly shut down the system if normal shutdown gets stuck
 Documentation=https://github.com/Kicksecure/security-misc
+DefaultDependencies=no
+Before=sysinit.target
+Requires=udev.service
+After=udev.service
 Wants=emerg-shutdown.service
 After=emerg-shutdown.service
 
@@ -15,4 +22,4 @@ ExecStop=bash -c -- 'echo "d" > /run/emerg-shutdown-trigger'
 KillMode=process
 
 [Install]
-WantedBy=multi-user.target
+WantedBy=sysinit.target
diff --git a/usr/libexec/security-misc/emerg-shutdown b/usr/libexec/security-misc/emerg-shutdown
index fe982ca..1afebcb 100755
--- a/usr/libexec/security-misc/emerg-shutdown
+++ b/usr/libexec/security-misc/emerg-shutdown
@@ -13,8 +13,10 @@ export LC_ALL=C
 
 ## Read emergency shutdown key configuration
 for config_file in /etc/security-misc/emerg-shutdown/*.conf /usr/local/etc/security-misc/emerg-shutdown/*.conf; do
-  bash -n "${config_file}"
-  source "${config_file}"
+  if [ -f "${config_file}" ]; then
+    bash -n "${config_file}"
+    source "${config_file}"
+  fi
 done
 if [ -z "${EMERG_SHUTDOWN_KEYS}" ]; then
   ## Default to Ctrl+Alt+Delete if nothing else is set
diff --git a/usr/libexec/security-misc/ensure-shutdown b/usr/libexec/security-misc/ensure-shutdown
index 48643ea..85ab31d 100755
--- a/usr/libexec/security-misc/ensure-shutdown
+++ b/usr/libexec/security-misc/ensure-shutdown
@@ -15,8 +15,10 @@ export LC_ALL=C
 
 ## Read emergency shutdown key configuration
 for config_file in /etc/security-misc/emerg-shutdown/*.conf /usr/local/etc/security-misc/emerg-shutdown/*.conf; do
-  bash -n "${config_file}"
-  source "${config_file}"
+  if [ -f "${config_file}" ]; then
+    bash -n "${config_file}"
+    source "${config_file}"
+  fi
 done
 if [ -z "${ENSURE_SHUTDOWN_TIMEOUT}" ] \
   || ! is_whole_number "${ENSURE_SHUTDOWN_TIMEOUT}"; then
diff --git a/usr/share/lintian/overrides/security-misc b/usr/share/lintian/overrides/security-misc
index 26c3c70..8351249 100644
--- a/usr/share/lintian/overrides/security-misc
+++ b/usr/share/lintian/overrides/security-misc
@@ -15,3 +15,6 @@ security-misc: uses-dpkg-database-directly [usr/bin/remount-secure]
 
 ## Special target to make sure this runs as non-parallelized as possible to avoid race conditions.
 security-misc: systemd-service-file-refers-to-unusual-wantedby-target sysinit-post.target [usr/lib/systemd/system/remount-secure.service]
+
+## False-positive. Unit is commented out by default.
+security-misc: systemd-service-file-missing-install-key [usr/lib/systemd/system/block-shutdown.service]