diff --git a/nixos/tests/common/ec2.nix b/nixos/tests/common/ec2.nix
index 1e69b63191a7..ba087bb60090 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/common/ec2.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/common/ec2.nix
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ with pkgs.lib;
           my $imageDir = ($ENV{'TMPDIR'} // "/tmp") . "/vm-state-machine";
           mkdir $imageDir, 0700;
           my $diskImage = "$imageDir/machine.qcow2";
-          system("qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file=${image}/nixos.qcow2 $diskImage") == 0 or die;
+          system("qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file=${image} $diskImage") == 0 or die;
           system("qemu-img resize $diskImage 10G") == 0 or die;
 
           # Note: we use net=169.0.0.0/8 rather than
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ with pkgs.lib;
           # again when it deletes link-local addresses.) Ideally we'd
           # turn off the DHCP server, but qemu does not have an option
           # to do that.
-          my $startCommand = "qemu-kvm -m 768";
+          my $startCommand = "qemu-kvm -m 1024";
           $startCommand .= " -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=vlan0";
           $startCommand .= " -netdev 'user,id=vlan0,net=169.0.0.0/8,guestfwd=tcp:169.254.169.254:80-cmd:${pkgs.micro-httpd}/bin/micro_httpd ${metaData}'";
           $startCommand .= " -drive file=$diskImage,if=virtio,werror=report";
diff --git a/nixos/tests/ec2.nix b/nixos/tests/ec2.nix
index c649ce852dad..6aeeb17ba31a 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/ec2.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/ec2.nix
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ with pkgs.lib;
 with import common/ec2.nix { inherit makeTest pkgs; };
 
 let
-  image =
+  imageCfg =
     (import ../lib/eval-config.nix {
       inherit system;
       modules = [
@@ -26,20 +26,32 @@ let
             '';
 
           # Needed by nixos-rebuild due to the lack of network
-          # access. Mostly copied from
-          # modules/profiles/installation-device.nix.
+          # access. Determined by trial and error.
           system.extraDependencies =
-            with pkgs; [
-              stdenv busybox perlPackages.ArchiveCpio unionfs-fuse mkinitcpio-nfs-utils
+            with pkgs; (
+              [
+                # Needed for a nixos-rebuild.
+                busybox
+                stdenv
+                stdenvNoCC
+                mkinitcpio-nfs-utils
+                unionfs-fuse
+                cloud-utils
+                desktop-file-utils
+                texinfo
+                libxslt.bin
+                xorg.lndir
 
-              # These are used in the configure-from-userdata tests for EC2. Httpd and valgrind are requested
-              # directly by the configuration we set, and libxslt.bin is used indirectly as a build dependency
-              # of the derivation for dbus configuration files.
-              apacheHttpd valgrind.doc libxslt.bin
-            ];
+                # These are used in the configure-from-userdata tests
+                # for EC2. Httpd and valgrind are requested by the
+                # configuration.
+                apacheHttpd apacheHttpd.doc apacheHttpd.man valgrind.doc
+              ]
+            );
         }
       ];
-    }).config.system.build.amazonImage;
+    }).config;
+  image = "${imageCfg.system.build.amazonImage}/${imageCfg.amazonImage.name}.vhd";
 
   sshKeys = import ./ssh-keys.nix pkgs;
   snakeOilPrivateKey = sshKeys.snakeOilPrivateKey.text;
@@ -110,16 +122,23 @@ in {
           text = "whoa";
         };
 
+        networking.hostName = "ec2-test-vm"; # required by services.httpd
+
         services.httpd = {
           enable = true;
           adminAddr = "test@example.org";
-          virtualHosts.localhost.documentRoot = "${pkgs.valgrind.doc}/share/doc/valgrind/html";
+          virtualHosts.localhost.documentRoot = "''${pkgs.valgrind.doc}/share/doc/valgrind/html";
         };
         networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 80 ];
       }
     '';
     script = ''
       $machine->start;
+
+      # amazon-init must succeed. if it fails, make the test fail
+      # immediately instead of timing out in waitForFile.
+      $machine->waitForUnit('amazon-init.service');
+
       $machine->waitForFile("/etc/testFile");
       $machine->succeed("cat /etc/testFile | grep -q 'whoa'");
 
diff --git a/nixos/tests/openstack-image.nix b/nixos/tests/openstack-image.nix
index d0225016ab76..8a21dd1b599e 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/openstack-image.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/openstack-image.nix
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ let
         ../modules/testing/test-instrumentation.nix
         ../modules/profiles/qemu-guest.nix
       ];
-    }).config.system.build.openstackImage;
+    }).config.system.build.openstackImage + "/nixos.qcow2";
 
   sshKeys = import ./ssh-keys.nix pkgs;
   snakeOilPrivateKey = sshKeys.snakeOilPrivateKey.text;