diff --git a/archiso/airootfs/etc/pacman.d/hooks/uncomment-mirrors.hook b/archiso/airootfs/etc/pacman.d/hooks/uncomment-mirrors.hook
index 342aa95..e3167cc 100644
--- a/archiso/airootfs/etc/pacman.d/hooks/uncomment-mirrors.hook
+++ b/archiso/airootfs/etc/pacman.d/hooks/uncomment-mirrors.hook
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ Type = Package
 Target = pacman-mirrorlist
 
 [Action]
-Description = Uncommenting all mirrors in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist...
+Description = Uncommenting HTTPS mirrors in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist...
 When = PostTransaction
 Depends = pacman-mirrorlist
 Depends = sed
-Exec = /usr/bin/sed -i "s/#Server/Server/g" /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
+Exec = /usr/bin/sed -E -i 's/#(Server = https:)/\1/g' /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
diff --git a/archiso/airootfs/etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/autologin.conf b/archiso/airootfs/etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/autologin.conf
index b10ceb2..7d33577 100644
--- a/archiso/airootfs/etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/autologin.conf
+++ b/archiso/airootfs/etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/autologin.conf
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 [Service]
 ExecStart=
-ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty -o '-p -f -- \\u' --noclear --autologin liveuser - $TERM
+ExecStart=-/usr/bin/agetty --noreset --noclear --autologin liveuser - ${TERM}
diff --git a/archiso/airootfs/root/.automated_script.sh b/archiso/airootfs/root/.automated_script.sh
index b67686f..f24d2e2 100755
--- a/archiso/airootfs/root/.automated_script.sh
+++ b/archiso/airootfs/root/.automated_script.sh
@@ -17,13 +17,12 @@ automated_script() {
     script="$(script_cmdline)"
     if [[ -n "${script}" && ! -x /tmp/startup_script ]]; then
         if [[ "${script}" =~ ^((http|https|ftp|tftp)://) ]]; then
-            # there's no synchronization for network availability before executing this script
-            printf '%s: waiting for network-online.target\n' "$0"
-            until systemctl --quiet is-active network-online.target; do
-                sleep 1
-            done
             printf '%s: downloading %s\n' "$0" "${script}"
-            curl "${script}" --location --retry-connrefused --retry 10 -s -o /tmp/startup_script
+            # there's no synchronization for network availability before executing this script; to ensure the network
+            # is online, we use a transient systemd service that depends on network-online.target to download the
+            # script rather than manually polling the target
+            systemd-run --pty --quiet -p Wants=network-online.target -p After=network-online.target \
+                curl "${script}" --location --retry-connrefused --retry 10 --fail -s -o /tmp/startup_script
             rt=$?
         else
             cp "${script}" /tmp/startup_script
@@ -42,4 +41,3 @@ automated_script() {
 if [[ $(tty) == "/dev/tty1" ]]; then
     automated_script
 fi
-