diff --git a/nixos/modules/config/nix-channel.nix b/nixos/modules/config/nix-channel.nix
index de2c9407498e..2703a60f858f 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/config/nix-channel.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/config/nix-channel.nix
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ in
       defaultChannel = mkOption {
         internal = true;
         type = types.str;
-        default = "https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-24.11";
+        default = "https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-unstable";
         description = "Default NixOS channel to which the root user is subscribed.";
       };
     };
diff --git a/nixos/release.nix b/nixos/release.nix
index 2f916e0ee995..31681c2e31f5 100644
--- a/nixos/release.nix
+++ b/nixos/release.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 with import ../lib;
 
-{ nixpkgs ? { outPath = cleanSource ./..; revCount = 708350; shortRev = "1d95cb5"; }
+{ nixpkgs ? { outPath = cleanSource ./..; revCount = 708350; shortRev = "gfedcba"; }
 , stableBranch ? false
 , supportedSystems ? [ "x86_64-linux" "aarch64-linux" ]
 , configuration ? {}
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ let
 
   version = fileContents ../.version;
   versionSuffix =
-    (if stableBranch then "." else "beta") + "${toString nixpkgs.revCount}.${nixpkgs.shortRev}";
+    (if stableBranch then "." else "pre") + "${toString nixpkgs.revCount}.${nixpkgs.shortRev}";
 
   # Run the tests for each platform.  You can run a test by doing
   # e.g. ‘nix-build release.nix -A tests.login.x86_64-linux’,