diff --git a/tests/libqos/libqos.c b/tests/libqos/libqos.c
index 7abb48254e..6226546c28 100644
--- a/tests/libqos/libqos.c
+++ b/tests/libqos/libqos.c
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 /**
  * Launch QEMU with the given command line,
  * and then set up interrupts and our guest malloc interface.
+ * Never returns NULL:
+ * Terminates the application in case an error is encountered.
  */
 QOSState *qtest_vboot(QOSOps *ops, const char *cmdline_fmt, va_list ap)
 {
diff --git a/tests/rtas-test.c b/tests/rtas-test.c
index ba0867afbd..276c87ef84 100644
--- a/tests/rtas-test.c
+++ b/tests/rtas-test.c
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ static void test_rtas_get_time_of_day(void)
     time_t t1, t2;
 
     qs = qtest_spapr_boot("-machine pseries");
-    g_assert(qs != NULL);
 
     t1 = time(NULL);
     ret = qrtas_get_time_of_day(qs->alloc, &tm, &ns);