diff --git a/.github/workflows/test_nixos.yml b/.github/workflows/test_nixos.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index c4c17b9cf..000000000
--- a/.github/workflows/test_nixos.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,30 +0,0 @@
-name: Test NixOS distro
-
-on:
-  workflow_dispatch:
-  pull_request:
-  push:
-    branches:
-      - main
-
-jobs:
-  nixos-install-test:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    container:
-      image: asterinas/asterinas:0.16.1-20251130
-      options: --device=/dev/kvm --privileged -v /dev:/dev
-    strategy:
-      fail-fast: false
-    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
-      - name: Build NixOS image and run hello-asterinas
-        run: |
-          make run NIXOS=1 NIXOS_DISK_SIZE_IN_MB=3072 NIXOS_STAGE_2_INIT=hello-asterinas || true
-          tail --lines 10 qemu.log | grep -q "^Hello Asterinas!" || (echo "Test NixOS failed" && exit 1)
-          echo "Test NixOS succeeds!"
-      - name: Basic nix-env test
-        run: |
-          make run NIXOS=1 NIXOS_DISK_SIZE_IN_MB=3072 NIXOS_STAGE_2_INIT="nix-env -iA nixos.hello && hello" || true
-          tail --lines 10 qemu.log | grep -q "^Hello, world!" || (echo "Test nix-env failed" && exit 1)
-          make clean
-          echo "Test nix-env succeeds!"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/test_nixos_full.yml b/.github/workflows/test_nixos_full.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..789e5fe01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/test_nixos_full.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+# A comprehensive test for NixOS.
+#
+# This test suite is designed to run on GitHub's larger runners,
+# leveraging their extended storage capacity. 
+# Here, we can thoroughly test a wider range of NixOS commands and various applications.
+# As GitHub charges more for these premium runners,
+# these tests will only run when changes are detected in AsterNixOS-specific content.
+name: Test AsterNixOS (full)
+
+on:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+  pull_request:
+    paths:
+      - distro/**
+      - .github/workflows/test_nixos_full.yml
+      - tools/nixos/**
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+    paths:
+      - distro/**
+      - .github/workflows/test_nixos_full.yml
+      - tools/nixos/**
+
+jobs:
+  full-nixos-test:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-4-cores-150GB-ssd
+    container:
+      image: asterinas/asterinas:0.16.1-20251130
+      options: -v /dev:/dev --privileged
+    timeout-minutes: 20
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - name: Use nix-env to install and run the hello package
+        run: |
+          make run NIXOS=1 NIXOS_DISK_SIZE_IN_MB=4096 NIXOS_STAGE_2_INIT="nix-env -iA nixos.hello && hello && sync" || true
+          tail --lines 10 qemu.log | grep -q "^Hello, world!" || (echo "Test nix-env failed" && exit 1)
+          echo "Test nix-env succeeds!"
+
diff --git a/.github/workflows/test_nixos_minimal.yml b/.github/workflows/test_nixos_minimal.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..843d74442
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/test_nixos_minimal.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+# A basic CI test for NixOS.
+#
+# This workflow is intended to include the most basic test for AsterNixOS.
+# It requires only a minimal amount of disk space
+# and thus can be run on standard Github runners _for free_.
+name: Test AsterNixOS (minimal)
+
+on:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+  pull_request:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+
+jobs:
+  minimal-nixos-test:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    strategy:
+      fail-fast: false
+    steps:
+      # In the subsequent tests, a relatively large disk (4GB) will be created to install AsterNixOS.
+      # Standard GitHub runners may encounter "insufficient disk space" errors.
+      # Therefore, we first execute the following action to free up
+      # some disk space. The amount of space saved can be referenced in
+      # https://github.com/endersonmenezes/free-disk-space?tab=readme-ov-file#size-savings,
+      # currently amounting to approximately 24GB.
+      - uses: endersonmenezes/free-disk-space@v3
+        with:
+          rm_cmd: "rmz"
+          remove_android: true
+          remove_dotnet: true
+          remove_haskell: true
+          remove_tool_cache: true
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - name: Run a Hello World program on AsterNixOS
+        uses: addnab/docker-run-action@v3
+        with:
+          image: asterinas/asterinas:0.16.1-20251130
+          options: --privileged -v /dev:/dev -v ${{ github.workspace }}:/root/asterinas
+          run: make run NIXOS=1 NIXOS_DISK_SIZE_IN_MB=4096 NIXOS_STAGE_2_INIT="hello-asterinas" || true
+      - name: Check results
+        run: |
+          tail --lines 10 ${{ github.workspace }}/qemu.log | grep -q "^Hello Asterinas!" || (echo "Test NixOS failed" && exit 1)
+          echo "Test NixOS succeeds!"
\ No newline at end of file