diff --git a/internal/rosa/perl.go b/internal/rosa/perl.go
index 2776dc6f..2320ff5d 100644
--- a/internal/rosa/perl.go
+++ b/internal/rosa/perl.go
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ func (t Toolchain) newPerl() (pkg.Artifact, string) {
 
 		ScriptEarly: `
 echo 'print STDOUT "1..0 # Skip broken test\n";' > ext/Pod-Html/t/htmldir3.t
-rm -f /system/bin/ps # perl does not like toybox ps
+chmod +w /system/bin && rm -f /system/bin/ps # perl does not like toybox ps
 `,
 
 		Flag: TEarly,
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@ rm -f /system/bin/ps # perl does not like toybox ps
 			{"Duseithreads"},
 			{"Duseshrplib"},
 		},
+		// leaky test suite breaks on alternative stage0 tarballs
+		SkipCheck: t.isStage0(),
 		Check: []string{
 			"TEST_JOBS=" + jobsLE,
 			"test_harness",