diff --git a/test/hwdb-test.sh b/test/hwdb-test.sh
index 5373930df4..2221c0d7fd 100755
--- a/test/hwdb-test.sh
+++ b/test/hwdb-test.sh
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 set -e
 
 ROOTDIR=$(dirname $(dirname $(readlink -f $0)))
-SYSTEMD_HWDB=${builddir:-.}/systemd-hwdb
+SYSTEMD_HWDB=./systemd-hwdb
 
 if [ ! -x "$SYSTEMD_HWDB" ]; then
     echo "$SYSTEMD_HWDB does not exist, please build first"
diff --git a/test/meson.build b/test/meson.build
index bddeeb62b4..9fdcd2d8d2 100644
--- a/test/meson.build
+++ b/test/meson.build
@@ -165,3 +165,21 @@ endif
 sysv_generator_test_py = find_program('sysv-generator-test.py')
 test('sysv-generator-test',
      sysv_generator_test_py)
+
+############################################################
+
+# prepare test/sys tree
+sys_script_py = find_program('sys-script.py')
+custom_target(
+        'sys',
+        command : [sys_script_py, meson.current_build_dir()],
+        output : 'sys',
+        build_by_default : true)
+
+udev_test_pl = find_program('udev-test.pl')
+test('udev-test',
+     udev_test_pl)
+
+hwdb_test_sh = find_program('hwdb-test.sh')
+test('hwdb-test',
+     hwdb_test_sh)
diff --git a/test/sysv-generator-test.py b/test/sysv-generator-test.py
index 99e323db3b..18bb40f812 100755
--- a/test/sysv-generator-test.py
+++ b/test/sysv-generator-test.py
@@ -26,14 +26,9 @@ import tempfile
 import shutil
 from glob import glob
 import collections
+from configparser import RawConfigParser
 
-try:
-    from configparser import RawConfigParser
-except ImportError:
-    # python 2
-    from ConfigParser import RawConfigParser
-
-sysv_generator = os.path.join(os.environ.get('builddir', '.'), 'systemd-sysv-generator')
+sysv_generator = './systemd-sysv-generator'
 
 class MultiDict(collections.OrderedDict):
     def __setitem__(self, key, value):