diff --git a/tests/plugin/bb.c b/tests/plugin/bb.c
index de09bdde4e..7d470a1011 100644
--- a/tests/plugin/bb.c
+++ b/tests/plugin/bb.c
@@ -104,10 +104,17 @@ QEMU_PLUGIN_EXPORT int qemu_plugin_install(qemu_plugin_id_t id,
 
     for (i = 0; i < argc; i++) {
         char *opt = argv[i];
-        if (g_strcmp0(opt, "inline") == 0) {
-            do_inline = true;
-        } else if (g_strcmp0(opt, "idle") == 0) {
-            idle_report = true;
+        g_autofree char **tokens = g_strsplit(opt, "=", 2);
+        if (g_strcmp0(tokens[0], "inline") == 0) {
+            if (!qemu_plugin_bool_parse(tokens[0], tokens[1], &do_inline)) {
+                fprintf(stderr, "boolean argument parsing failed: %s\n", opt);
+                return -1;
+            }
+        } else if (g_strcmp0(tokens[0], "idle") == 0) {
+            if (!qemu_plugin_bool_parse(tokens[0], tokens[1], &idle_report)) {
+                fprintf(stderr, "boolean argument parsing failed: %s\n", opt);
+                return -1;
+            }
         } else {
             fprintf(stderr, "option parsing failed: %s\n", opt);
             return -1;