diff --git a/bin/ch-test b/bin/ch-test
index 2788eed42..9e3c54693 100755
--- a/bin/ch-test
+++ b/bin/ch-test
@@ -299,16 +299,17 @@ pedantry_set () {
     if [[ $ch_pedantic == no ]]; then
         ch_pedantic=  # proper boolean
     fi
-    # The motivation here is that in pedantic mode, we want to run all the
-    # tests we reasonably can. So, if the user *has* sudo, then default --sudo
-    # to yes. What is a little awkward is that “sudo -v” can generate a
-    # password prompt in the middle of the status output. An alternative is
-    # “sudo -nv”, which doesn’t; drawbacks are that you have to analyze the
-    # output (not exit code) and it generates a failed password log message if
-    # there is not already a sudo session going.
+    # Motivation here: In pedantic mode, we want to run all the tests we
+    # reasonably can. So, if the user *has* sudo, then default --sudo to yes.
+    # What is a little awkward is that “sudo true” can generate a password
+    # prompt in the middle of the status output. An alternative is “sudo -nv”,
+    # which doesn’t; drawbacks are that you have to analyze the output (not
+    # exit code) and it generates a failed password log message if there is
+    # not already a sudo session going. We also used to use “sudo -v”, which
+    # prompts for a password even if you have passwordless sudo set up.
     if    [[ -n $ch_pedantic ]] \
        && command -v sudo > /dev/null \
-       && sudo -v > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+       && sudo true > /dev/null 2>&1; then
         use_sudo_default=yes
     else
         use_sudo_default=
diff --git a/test/build/50_dockerfile.bats b/test/build/50_dockerfile.bats
index e25f99d59..fc080a2b4 100644
--- a/test/build/50_dockerfile.bats
+++ b/test/build/50_dockerfile.bats
@@ -1160,7 +1160,8 @@ EOF
     [[ $status -ne 0 ]]
     [[    $output = *'error: no context because '?'-'?' given'* \
        || $output = *'COPY failed: file not found in build context or'* \
-       || $output = *'no such file or directory'* ]]
+       || $output = *'no such file or directory'*
+       || $output = *'not found'* ]]
 }
 
 
diff --git a/test/common.bash b/test/common.bash
index c9f7a1d30..c6d1d887f 100644
--- a/test/common.bash
+++ b/test/common.bash
@@ -454,7 +454,7 @@ fi
 # Do we have and want sudo?
 if    [[ $CH_TEST_SUDO ]] \
    && command -v sudo >/dev/null 2>&1 \
-   && sudo -v > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+   && sudo true > /dev/null 2>&1; then
     # This isn’t super reliable; it returns true if we have *any* sudo
     # privileges, not specifically to run the commands we want to run.
     ch_have_sudo=yes
diff --git a/test/force-auto.py.in b/test/force-auto.py.in
index 9bfab7a39..0184fd2da 100644
--- a/test/force-auto.py.in
+++ b/test/force-auto.py.in
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ class Test(abc.ABC):
    base = None
    config = None
    scope = Scope.FULL
+   skip_reason = None
    prep_run = None
    runs = { Run.UNNEEDED_FAIL: "false",
             Run.UNNEEDED_WIN: "true" }
@@ -83,6 +84,13 @@ class Test(abc.ABC):
    def build2_post_hook(self):
       return ""
 
+   @property
+   def skip(self):
+      if (self.skip_reason is None):
+         return ""
+      else:
+         return "skip '%s'" % self.skip_reason
+
    def as_grep_files(self, grep_files, image, invert=False):
       cmds = []
       for (re, path) in grep_files:
@@ -168,6 +176,7 @@ echo "$output"
       # emit the test
       print(f"""
 @test "ch-image --force: {self}" {{
+{self.skip}
 scope {scope}
 {arch_excludes}
 
@@ -234,6 +243,7 @@ class T_RHEL_UBI_8(RHEL8):
 class CentOS_8(RHEL8, EPEL_Mixin):
    prep_run = "dnf install -y epel-release"
 class T_CentOS_8_Stream(CentOS_8):
+   skip_reason = "issue #1904"
    # CentOS Stream pulls from quay.io per the CentOS wiki:
    # https://wiki.centos.org/FAQ/CentOSStream#What_artifacts_are_built.3F
    base = "quay.io/centos/centos:stream8"
@@ -254,6 +264,7 @@ class T_Rocky_8(CentOS_8):
 class Fedora(RHEL8):
    config = "fedora"
 class T_Fedora_26(Fedora):
+   skip_reason = "issue #1904"
    # We would prefer to test the lowest supported --force version, 24,
    # but the ancient version of dnf it has doesn't fail the transaction when
    # a package fails so we test with 26 instead.