diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/221 b/tests/qemu-iotests/221
index 25dd47bcfe440cf85c0ce82cc860d56df61ea296..0e9096fec75155dd3e81f96f65b678fe3c2d5360 100755
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/221
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/221
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 #
 # Test qemu-img vs. unaligned images
+# (See also 253, which is the O_DIRECT version)
 #
 # Copyright (C) 2018-2019 Red Hat, Inc.
 #
@@ -37,6 +38,9 @@ _supported_fmt raw
 _supported_proto file
 _supported_os Linux
 
+_default_cache_mode writeback
+_supported_cache_modes writeback writethrough unsafe
+
 echo
 echo "=== Check mapping of unaligned raw image ==="
 echo
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/253 b/tests/qemu-iotests/253
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d88d5afa45b92c34e3b200f5d5f0ee17457fa1fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/253
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# Test qemu-img vs. unaligned images; O_DIRECT version
+# (Originates from 221)
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2019 Red Hat, Inc.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+#
+
+seq="$(basename $0)"
+echo "QA output created by $seq"
+
+status=1 # failure is the default!
+
+_cleanup()
+{
+    _cleanup_test_img
+}
+trap "_cleanup; exit \$status" 0 1 2 3 15
+
+# get standard environment, filters and checks
+. ./common.rc
+. ./common.filter
+
+_supported_fmt raw
+_supported_proto file
+_supported_os Linux
+
+_default_cache_mode none
+_supported_cache_modes none directsync
+
+echo
+echo "=== Check mapping of unaligned raw image ==="
+echo
+
+# We do not know how large a physical sector is, but it is certainly
+# going to be a factor of 1 MB
+size=$((1 * 1024 * 1024 - 1))
+
+# qemu-img create rounds size up to BDRV_SECTOR_SIZE
+_make_test_img $size
+$QEMU_IMG map --output=json --image-opts \
+    "driver=$IMGFMT,file.driver=file,file.filename=$TEST_IMG,cache.direct=on" \
+    | _filter_qemu_img_map
+
+# so we resize it and check again
+truncate --size=$size "$TEST_IMG"
+$QEMU_IMG map --output=json --image-opts \
+    "driver=$IMGFMT,file.driver=file,file.filename=$TEST_IMG,cache.direct=on" \
+    | _filter_qemu_img_map
+
+# qemu-io with O_DIRECT always writes whole physical sectors.  Again,
+# we do not know how large a physical sector is, so we just start
+# writing from a 64 kB boundary, which should always be aligned.
+offset=$((1 * 1024 * 1024 - 64 * 1024))
+$QEMU_IO -c "w $offset $((size - offset))" "$TEST_IMG" | _filter_qemu_io
+$QEMU_IMG map --output=json --image-opts \
+    "driver=$IMGFMT,file.driver=file,file.filename=$TEST_IMG,cache.direct=on" \
+    | _filter_qemu_img_map
+
+# Resize it and check again -- contrary to 221, we may not get partial
+# sectors here, so there should be only two areas (one zero, one
+# data).
+truncate --size=$size "$TEST_IMG"
+$QEMU_IMG map --output=json --image-opts \
+    "driver=$IMGFMT,file.driver=file,file.filename=$TEST_IMG,cache.direct=on" \
+    | _filter_qemu_img_map
+
+# success, all done
+echo '*** done'
+rm -f $seq.full
+status=0
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/253.out b/tests/qemu-iotests/253.out
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..607c0baa0bae303718f559f0f2efbe6a045ad4ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/253.out
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+QA output created by 253
+
+=== Check mapping of unaligned raw image ===
+
+Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=1048575
+[{ "start": 0, "length": 1048576, "depth": 0, "zero": true, "data": false, "offset": OFFSET}]
+[{ "start": 0, "length": 1048576, "depth": 0, "zero": true, "data": false, "offset": OFFSET}]
+wrote 65535/65535 bytes at offset 983040
+63.999 KiB, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
+[{ "start": 0, "length": 983040, "depth": 0, "zero": true, "data": false, "offset": OFFSET},
+{ "start": 983040, "length": 65536, "depth": 0, "zero": false, "data": true, "offset": OFFSET}]
+[{ "start": 0, "length": 983040, "depth": 0, "zero": true, "data": false, "offset": OFFSET},
+{ "start": 983040, "length": 65536, "depth": 0, "zero": false, "data": true, "offset": OFFSET}]
+*** done
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/group b/tests/qemu-iotests/group
index 00e474ab0a5ad83c617fc4191d76bb5a898e2f4a..52b7c16e155c26023bc849b1f0aa0192255680cb 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/group
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/group
@@ -250,3 +250,4 @@
 248 rw auto quick
 249 rw auto quick
 252 rw auto backing quick
+253 rw auto quick