diff --git a/test/system/252-quadlet.bats b/test/system/252-quadlet.bats
index d094102f98..34d94fa456 100644
--- a/test/system/252-quadlet.bats
+++ b/test/system/252-quadlet.bats
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ function start_time() {
 function setup() {
     skip_if_remote "quadlet tests are meaningless over remote"
     skip_if_rootless_cgroupsv1 "Can't use --cgroups=split w/ CGv1 (#17456)"
+    skip_if_journald_unavailable "quadlet isn't really usable without journal"
 
     test -x "$QUADLET" || die "Cannot run quadlet tests without executable \$QUADLET ($QUADLET)"
 
diff --git a/test/system/260-sdnotify.bats b/test/system/260-sdnotify.bats
index 5f19f0a7d5..65701762a1 100644
--- a/test/system/260-sdnotify.bats
+++ b/test/system/260-sdnotify.bats
@@ -250,6 +250,8 @@ READY=1" "sdnotify sent MAINPID and READY"
 }
 
 @test "sdnotify : play kube - with policies" {
+    skip_if_journald_unavailable
+
     # Pull that image. Retry in case of flakes.
     run_podman pull $SYSTEMD_IMAGE || \
         run_podman pull $SYSTEMD_IMAGE || \