diff --git a/test/TEST-01-BASIC/test.sh b/test/TEST-01-BASIC/test.sh
index f93ea934fb2..6ad2f3402b2 100755
--- a/test/TEST-01-BASIC/test.sh
+++ b/test/TEST-01-BASIC/test.sh
@@ -61,6 +61,13 @@ EOF
     )
     setup_nspawn_root
 
+    # mask some services that we do not want to run in these tests
+    ln -s /dev/null $initdir/etc/systemd/system/systemd-hwdb-update.service
+    ln -s /dev/null $initdir/etc/systemd/system/systemd-journal-catalog-update.service
+    ln -s /dev/null $initdir/etc/systemd/system/systemd-networkd.service
+    ln -s /dev/null $initdir/etc/systemd/system/systemd-networkd.socket
+    ln -s /dev/null $initdir/etc/systemd/system/systemd-resolved.service
+
     ddebug "umount $TESTDIR/root"
     umount $TESTDIR/root
 }
diff --git a/test/test-functions b/test/test-functions
index a794f3556e1..fca163a979a 100644
--- a/test/test-functions
+++ b/test/test-functions
@@ -71,8 +71,7 @@ selinux=0 \
 $KERNEL_APPEND \
 "
 
-    QEMU_OPTIONS="-machine accel=kvm:tcg \
--smp $QEMU_SMP \
+    QEMU_OPTIONS="-smp $QEMU_SMP \
 -net none \
 -m 512M \
 -nographic \
@@ -83,6 +82,10 @@ $KERNEL_APPEND \
         QEMU_OPTIONS="$QEMU_OPTIONS -initrd $INITRD"
     fi
 
+    if [ -c /dev/kvm ]; then
+        QEMU_OPTIONS="$QEMU_OPTIONS -machine accel=kvm -enable-kvm -cpu host"
+    fi
+
     ( set -x
       $QEMU_BIN $QEMU_OPTIONS -append "$KERNEL_APPEND" $TESTDIR/rootdisk.img ) || return 1
 }
@@ -145,12 +148,12 @@ install_missing_libraries() {
 create_empty_image() {
     rm -f "$TESTDIR/rootdisk.img"
     # Create the blank file to use as a root filesystem
-    dd if=/dev/null of="$TESTDIR/rootdisk.img" bs=1M seek=300
+    dd if=/dev/null of="$TESTDIR/rootdisk.img" bs=1M seek=400
     LOOPDEV=$(losetup --show -P -f $TESTDIR/rootdisk.img)
     [ -b "$LOOPDEV" ] || return 1
     echo "LOOPDEV=$LOOPDEV" >> $STATEFILE
     sfdisk "$LOOPDEV" <<EOF
-,290M
+,390M
 ,
 EOF
 
@@ -1131,7 +1134,9 @@ inst_libdir_file() {
 }
 
 check_nspawn() {
-    [[ -d /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd ]]
+    [[ -d /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd ]] && \
+    [[ -d /run/systemd/system ]] && \
+    [[ -e /lib/systemd/systemd-machined ]]
 }