diff --git a/debian/tests/smoke b/debian/tests/smoke
index 866d0ad409b..5c4facbb501 100644
--- a/debian/tests/smoke
+++ b/debian/tests/smoke
@@ -45,28 +45,29 @@ else
   systemctl restart mariadb
 fi
 
-mariadb <<EOT
+mysql <<EOT
 CREATE DATABASE testdatabase;
 CREATE USER 'testuser'@'localhost' identified by 'testpassword';
 GRANT ALL ON testdatabase.* TO 'testuser'@'localhost';
 EOT
 
-mariadb testdatabase <<EOT
+mysql testdatabase <<EOT
 CREATE TABLE foo (bar INTEGER);
 INSERT INTO foo (bar) VALUES (41);
 EOT
 
-result=$(echo 'SELECT bar+1 FROM foo;'|mariadb --batch --skip-column-names --user=testuser --password=testpassword testdatabase)
-if [ "$result" != "42" ]; then
-       echo "Unexpected result" >&2
-       exit 1
+result=$(echo 'SELECT bar+1 FROM foo;'|mysql --batch --skip-column-names --user=testuser --password=testpassword testdatabase)
+if [ "$result" != "42" ]
+then
+  echo "Unexpected result" >&2
+  exit 1
 fi
 
-mariadb --user=testuser --password=testpassword testdatabase <<EOT
+mysql --user=testuser --password=testpassword testdatabase <<EOT
 DROP TABLE foo;
 EOT
 
-mariadb <<EOT
+mysql <<EOT
 DROP DATABASE testdatabase;
 DROP USER 'testuser'@'localhost';
 EOT
@@ -114,5 +115,9 @@ then
     fi
   done
 else
-  dpkg-query -W $plugin && exit 1
+  if dpkg-query -W $plugin
+  then
+    echo "Error: Plugin $plugin was found even though it should not exist on a 32-bit and little-endian system"
+    exit 1
+  fi
 fi
diff --git a/debian/tests/upstream b/debian/tests/upstream
index 7dd3d50236e..a348e1545de 100644
--- a/debian/tests/upstream
+++ b/debian/tests/upstream
@@ -60,12 +60,15 @@ cp -v "$MTR_SKIP_TEST_LIST" "$AUTOPKGTEST_ARTIFACTS"
 cd /usr/share/mysql/mysql-test
 echo "starting mysql-test-tun.pl..."
 export MTR_PRINT_CORE=detailed
+# The $MTR_ARGUMENTS_APPEND is intentionally used to pass in extra arguments
+# shellcheck disable=SC2086
 eatmydata perl -I. ./mysql-test-run.pl \
     --force --testcase-timeout=120 --suite-timeout=540 --retry=3 \
     --verbose-restart --max-save-core=1 --max-save-datadir=1 \
     --parallel=auto --skip-rpl --suite=main \
     --skip-test-list="$MTR_SKIP_TEST_LIST" \
     --vardir="$WORKDIR/var" --tmpdir="$WORKDIR/tmp" \
-    --xml-report="$AUTOPKGTEST_ARTIFACTS/mysql-test-run-junit.xml"
+    --xml-report="$AUTOPKGTEST_ARTIFACTS/mysql-test-run-junit.xml" \
+    $MTR_ARGUMENTS_APPEND \
     "$@" 2>&1
 echo "run: OK"