diff --git a/tests/postcopy-test.c b/tests/postcopy-test.c
index d6613c5fa4871ec31b563b312af2c7c01807a106..dafe8beba4ab38d8077aa3c035844497f7fe0232 100644
--- a/tests/postcopy-test.c
+++ b/tests/postcopy-test.c
@@ -380,17 +380,21 @@ static void test_migrate(void)
                                   " -incoming %s",
                                   tmpfs, bootpath, uri);
     } else if (strcmp(arch, "ppc64") == 0) {
+        const char *accel;
+
+        /* On ppc64, the test only works with kvm-hv, but not with kvm-pr */
+        accel = access("/sys/module/kvm_hv", F_OK) ? "tcg" : "kvm:tcg";
         init_bootfile_ppc(bootpath);
-        cmd_src = g_strdup_printf("-machine accel=kvm:tcg -m 256M"
+        cmd_src = g_strdup_printf("-machine accel=%s -m 256M"
                                   " -name pcsource,debug-threads=on"
                                   " -serial file:%s/src_serial"
                                   " -drive file=%s,if=pflash,format=raw",
-                                  tmpfs, bootpath);
-        cmd_dst = g_strdup_printf("-machine accel=kvm:tcg -m 256M"
+                                  accel, tmpfs, bootpath);
+        cmd_dst = g_strdup_printf("-machine accel=%s -m 256M"
                                   " -name pcdest,debug-threads=on"
                                   " -serial file:%s/dest_serial"
                                   " -incoming %s",
-                                  tmpfs, uri);
+                                  accel, tmpfs, uri);
     } else {
         g_assert_not_reached();
     }