diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/net/forwarding/lib.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/net/forwarding/lib.sh
index ca53b539aa2d18affad9fd63399837c7f5a7fe14..08bac6cf1bb3ab8898b22c28ec13c89083b3f69c 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/net/forwarding/lib.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/net/forwarding/lib.sh
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ lldpad_app_wait_set()
 {
 	local dev=$1; shift
 
-	while lldptool -t -i $dev -V APP -c app | grep -q pending; do
+	while lldptool -t -i $dev -V APP -c app | grep -Eq "pending|unknown"; do
 		echo "$dev: waiting for lldpad to push pending APP updates"
 		sleep 5
 	done