diff --git a/tests/kola/destructive/itest-label-selinux.sh b/tests/kola/destructive/itest-label-selinux.sh
index 87fb26f0..7bfd2351 100755
--- a/tests/kola/destructive/itest-label-selinux.sh
+++ b/tests/kola/destructive/itest-label-selinux.sh
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 set -xeuo pipefail
 
 . ${KOLA_EXT_DATA}/libinsttest.sh
+require_writable_sysroot
 
 date
 cd /ostree/repo/tmp
diff --git a/tests/kola/destructive/staged-deploy.sh b/tests/kola/destructive/staged-deploy.sh
index 47d7c9af..e0c17a27 100755
--- a/tests/kola/destructive/staged-deploy.sh
+++ b/tests/kola/destructive/staged-deploy.sh
@@ -71,6 +71,8 @@ case "${n}" in
     firstdeploycommit=$(rpm-ostree status |grep 'Commit:' |head -1|sed -e 's,^ *Commit: *,,')
     assert_streq "${firstdeploycommit}" "${newcommit}"
     # Cleanup
+    ## TODO remove workaround for https://github.com/coreos/rpm-ostree/pull/2021
+    mkdir -p /var/lib/rpm-ostree/history
     rpm-ostree cleanup -rp
     echo "ok upgrade with staging"