diff --git a/scripts/run-qemu.sh b/scripts/run-qemu.sh
index cad03e48..9ec94582 100755
--- a/scripts/run-qemu.sh
+++ b/scripts/run-qemu.sh
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@
 
 if test "$1" = "--background" ; then
     socket=$2
-    echo "running in background, socket is $socket"
-    flags="--daemonize -chardev socket,id=sock,path=$2,server=on,wait=off,mux=on -mon chardev=sock,mode=readline -serial chardev:sock  "
+    pid="`dirname $socket`/`basename $socket .sock`.pid"
+    echo "running in background, socket is $socket, pid $pid"
+    flags="--daemonize --pidfile $pid -chardev socket,id=sock,path=$2,server=on,wait=off,mux=on -mon chardev=sock,mode=readline -serial chardev:sock  "
     shift;shift
 else
     flags="-serial mon:stdio"
diff --git a/tests/pppoe/getaddress.expect b/tests/pppoe/getaddress.expect
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6cacb78e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/pppoe/getaddress.expect
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+set timeout 60
+
+spawn socat unix-connect:foo.sock -
+send "\r\n"
+expect "login:" {  send "root\r\n" }
+expect "/ #"
+set FINISHED 0
+set EXIT "1" 
+while { $FINISHED < 5 } {
+  send "ip address show dev ppp0 | grep ppp0\r\n"
+  
+  expect {
+    "192.168.100.1" { set FINISHED 10; set EXIT 0; }
+    "can't find device" { send_user "waiting ..." ; send "\r\n"; sleep 3 }
+  }
+  set FINISHED [ expr $FINISHED + 1 ]
+}
+
+exit $EXIT
diff --git a/tests/pppoe/run.sh b/tests/pppoe/run.sh
index 4c87b63a..541b8a7d 100755
--- a/tests/pppoe/run.sh
+++ b/tests/pppoe/run.sh
@@ -1,20 +1,25 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env sh
 
-
-set -e
-
 cleanup(){
-    echo "do cleanup";
+    if test -e foo.pid && test -d /proc/`cat foo.pid` ; then
+	echo "killing qemu"
+	kill `cat foo.pid`
+    fi
 }
 trap cleanup EXIT
-trap 'echo "command $(eval echo $BASH_COMMAND) failed with exit code $?"; exit $?' ERR
+fatal(){
+    err=$?
+    echo "FAIL: command $(eval echo $BASH_COMMAND) exited with code $err"
+    exit $err
+}
+trap fatal ERR
 
 NIXPKGS_ALLOW_UNSUPPORTED_SYSTEM=1 nix-build '<liminix>' -I liminix-config=./configuration.nix --arg device "import <liminix/devices/qemu.nix>" -A outputs.default $*
 
-
-if ! ( echo "cont" | socat -   unix-connect:../support/ppp-server/qemu-monitor); then
+if ! ( echo "cont" | socat - unix-connect:../support/ppp-server/qemu-monitor); then
     echo "need pppoe server running"
     exit 1
 fi
 
-../../scripts/run-qemu.sh result/vmlinux result/squashfs
+../../scripts/run-qemu.sh --background foo.sock result/vmlinux result/squashfs
+nix-shell -p expect --run "expect getaddress.expect"