diff --git a/meta-isar/conf/local.conf.sample b/meta-isar/conf/local.conf.sample
index 6208623e..1d7e178a 100644
--- a/meta-isar/conf/local.conf.sample
+++ b/meta-isar/conf/local.conf.sample
@@ -257,4 +257,4 @@ USER_isar[flags] += "clear-text-password"
 # Non git repository users can use value from 'stat -c%Y ChangeLog'
 # To know more details about this variable and how to set the value refer below
 # https://reproducible-builds.org/docs/source-date-epoch/
-#SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH =
+#SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH = ""
diff --git a/meta/classes/image-account-extension.bbclass b/meta/classes/image-account-extension.bbclass
index bb173b14..1d49054c 100644
--- a/meta/classes/image-account-extension.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/image-account-extension.bbclass
@@ -256,11 +256,11 @@ image_postprocess_accounts() {
                 # chpasswd adds a random salt when running against a clear-text password.
                 # For reproducible images, we manually generate the password and use the
                 # SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH to generate the salt in a deterministic way.
-                if [ -z "${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}"]; then
+                if [ -z "${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}" ]; then
                     chpasswd_args=""
                 else
-                    salt="$(echo "${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}" | sha256sum -z | cut -c 1-15)"
-                    password="$(openssl passwd -6 -salt $salt "$password")"
+                    salt="$(echo ${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH} | sha256sum -z | cut -c 1-15)"
+                    password="$(openssl passwd -6 -salt $salt $password)"
                 fi
             fi
             printf '%s:%s' "$name" "$password" | sudo chroot '${ROOTFSDIR}' \
diff --git a/meta/classes/image.bbclass b/meta/classes/image.bbclass
index 063b9a3b..bf3dfea8 100644
--- a/meta/classes/image.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/image.bbclass
@@ -310,8 +310,8 @@ python() {
 #       invalidate the SSTATE entries for most packages, even if they don't use the
 #       global SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH variable.
 rootfs_install_pkgs_install_prepend() {
-    if [ ! -z "${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}" ]; then
-        export SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH="${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}"
+    if [ -n "${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}" ]; then
+        export SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
     fi
 }
 
@@ -443,13 +443,15 @@ EOSUDO
 
     # Set same time-stamps to the newly generated file/folders in the
     # rootfs image for the purpose of reproducible builds.
-    test ! -z "${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}" && \
-        sudo find ${ROOTFSDIR} -newermt \
-            "$(date -d@${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH} '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')" \
-            -printf "%y %p\n" \
-            -exec touch '{}' -h -d@${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH} ';' > ${DEPLOY_DIR_IMAGE}/files.modified_timestamps && \
-            bbwarn "$(grep ^f ${DEPLOY_DIR_IMAGE}/files.modified_timestamps) \nModified above file timestamps to build image reproducibly"
-
+    if [ -n "${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}" ]; then
+        msg=""
+        fn="${DEPLOY_DIR_IMAGE}/files.modified_timestamps"
+        if sudo find ${ROOTFSDIR} -newermt "$(date -d@${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH} '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')" \
+            -printf "%y %p\n" -exec touch '{}' -h -d@${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH} ';' >"$fn"; then
+            msg="\n        List of files modified could be found here: .${DEPLOY_DIR_IMAGE}/files.modified_timestamps"
+        fi
+        bbwarn "Modified timestamp (${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}) of $(egrep ^f '$fn' | wc -l) files for image reproducibly.$msg"
+    fi
 }
 addtask rootfs_finalize before do_rootfs after do_rootfs_postprocess
 
diff --git a/meta/classes/initramfs.bbclass b/meta/classes/initramfs.bbclass
index db283347..1b98bc06 100644
--- a/meta/classes/initramfs.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/initramfs.bbclass
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@ do_generate_initramfs() {
     rootfs_do_qemu
 
     # generate reproducible initrd if requested
-    if [ ! -z "${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}" ]; then
-        export SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH="${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}"
+    if [ -n "${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}" ]; then
+        export SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
     fi
 
     sudo -E chroot "${INITRAMFS_ROOTFS}" \
diff --git a/wic-extract-rootfs-partition.sh b/wic-extract-rootfs-partition.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..48de0d3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wic-extract-rootfs-partition.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Copyright (c) Roberto A. Foglietta, 2023
+#
+# Authors:
+#  Roberto A. Foglietta <roberto.foglietta@gmail.com>
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+#
+#set -ex
+
+if [ "$(whoami)" != "root" ]; then
+    echo
+    echo "WARNING: this script should run as root, sudo!"
+    sudo -E $0 "$@"
+    exit $?
+fi
+
+if [ -e "$1" ]; then
+    fimg=$(readlink -e $1)
+fi
+
+cd $(dirname $0)
+
+if [ ! -n "$1" -a  ! -e "$fimg" ]; then
+    fimg=$(ls -1 build/tmp/deploy/images/*/*.wic)
+    n=( $fimg )
+    if [ ${#n[@]} -gt 1 ]; then
+        echo
+        echo "WARNING: more than one image found, choose one:"
+        echo
+        echo "$fimg"
+        echo
+        exit 1
+    fi
+fi
+
+if [ ! -e "$fimg" ]; then
+    echo
+    echo "ERROR: no any image or block device ${1:+'$1' }found, abort!"
+    echo
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+wicf=$fimg
+losetup -Pf $wicf
+ldev=$(losetup -j $wicf | cut -d: -f1 | tail -n1)
+echo loopdev:$ldev
+dd if=${ldev}p2 bs=1M of=${wicf/.wic/.rootfs} status=progress
+chown $(id -u).$(id -g) ${wicf/.wic/.rootfs}
+du -ms ${wicf/.wic/.rootfs}
+losetup -d $ldev