diff --git a/unix-ffi/machine/machine/__init__.py b/unix-ffi/machine/machine/__init__.py
index 80bf5da1a..72a5d9403 100644
--- a/unix-ffi/machine/machine/__init__.py
+++ b/unix-ffi/machine/machine/__init__.py
@@ -4,4 +4,17 @@
 
 
 def unique_id():
+    for base in ("/etc", "/var/lib/dbus"):
+        try:
+            with open(base + "/machine-id", "rb") as source:
+                data = source.read(32)
+                if len(data) == 32:
+                    for byte in data:
+                        if byte not in b"0123456789abcdef":
+                            break
+                    # unhexlify might not be available
+                    return bytes([int(data[i : i + 2], 16) for i in range(0, len(data), 2)])
+        except OSError as e:
+            if "ENOENT" not in str(e):
+                raise
     return b"upy-non-unique"
diff --git a/unix-ffi/machine/manifest.py b/unix-ffi/machine/manifest.py
index f7c11b81a..bdfb6a95f 100644
--- a/unix-ffi/machine/manifest.py
+++ b/unix-ffi/machine/manifest.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-metadata(version="0.2.2")
+metadata(version="0.2.3")
 
 # Originally written by Paul Sokolovsky.