diff --git a/modules/installer/grub/grub-menu-builder.sh b/modules/installer/grub/grub-menu-builder.sh
index bdf42dd4d790..c6e307828223 100644
--- a/modules/installer/grub/grub-menu-builder.sh
+++ b/modules/installer/grub/grub-menu-builder.sh
@@ -274,9 +274,10 @@ for generation in $(
     | sed 's/system-\([0-9]\+\)-link/\1/' \
     | sort -n -r); do
     link=/nix/var/nix/profiles/system-$generation-link
-    date=$(stat --printf="%y\n" $link | sed 's/\..*//')
+    date=$(stat --printf="%y\n" $link | sed 's/\..*//' | sed 's/ .*//')
     kernelVersion=$(cd $(dirname $(readlink -f $link/kernel))/lib/modules && echo *)
-    addEntry "NixOS - Configuration $generation ($date - $kernelVersion)" $link "$generation ($date)"
+    nixosVersion=$(if [ -e $link/nixos-version ]; then cat $link/nixos-version; fi)
+    addEntry "NixOS - Configuration $generation ($date - ${nixosVersion:-$kernelVersion})" $link "$generation ($date)"
 done
 
 
diff --git a/modules/system/activation/top-level.nix b/modules/system/activation/top-level.nix
index f1bc4eea5978..6ebc1fd68e1a 100644
--- a/modules/system/activation/top-level.nix
+++ b/modules/system/activation/top-level.nix
@@ -120,9 +120,10 @@ let
       ln -s ${config.system.build.upstart} $out/upstart
       ln -s ${config.hardware.firmware} $out/firmware
 
-      echo "$kernelParams" > $out/kernel-params
-      echo "$configurationName" > $out/configuration-name
-      echo "${toString config.system.build.upstart.interfaceVersion}" > $out/upstart-interface-version
+      echo -n "$kernelParams" > $out/kernel-params
+      echo -n "$configurationName" > $out/configuration-name
+      echo -n "${toString config.system.build.upstart.interfaceVersion}" > $out/upstart-interface-version
+      echo -n "$nixosVersion" > $out/nixos-version
 
       mkdir $out/fine-tune
       childCount=0
@@ -145,7 +146,7 @@ let
   # script `switch-to-configuration' that activates the configuration
   # and makes it bootable.
   system = pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
-    name = "system";
+    name = "nixos-${config.system.nixosVersion}";
     buildCommand = systemBuilder;
     inherit children;
     kernelParams =
@@ -153,6 +154,7 @@ let
     menuBuilder = config.system.build.menuBuilder;
     initScriptBuilder = config.system.build.initScriptBuilder;
     activationScript = config.system.activationScripts.script;
+    nixosVersion = config.system.nixosVersion;
 
     jobs = map (j: j.name) (attrValues config.jobs);