diff --git a/bin/helpers b/bin/helpers
index 1cd99716c..d9474774d 100644
--- a/bin/helpers
+++ b/bin/helpers
@@ -69,6 +69,16 @@ enableNICSRIOV() (
   parentNIC="${1}"
   numVFS="${2:-"7"}"
 
+  if ! [ -d "/sys/class/net/${parentNIC}" ]; then
+      echo "${parentNIC} is not present, wrong name?"
+      return 1
+  fi
+
+  if ! [ -e "/sys/class/net/${parentNIC}/device/sriov_numvfs" ]; then
+      echo "${parentNIC} does not support SRIOV VFs"
+      return 1
+  fi
+
   echo "${numVFS}" > "/sys/class/net/${parentNIC}/device/sriov_numvfs"
   ip link set "${parentNIC}" up
   sleep 10
diff --git a/bin/local-run b/bin/local-run
index 3730543dc..2ab4edf5c 100755
--- a/bin/local-run
+++ b/bin/local-run
@@ -9,4 +9,4 @@ test_name="$(basename "${script}")"
 
 echo "==> Running the job ${test_name} against ${lxd_snap_channel}" >&2
 sed -e "1 a LXD_SNAP_CHANNEL=${lxd_snap_channel}" -e "1 r bin/helpers" "${script}" > "${_script}"
-exec bash "${_script}"
+exec bash "${_script}" "${*}"
diff --git a/tests/network b/tests/network
index 579aee7e0..202b5b66d 100755
--- a/tests/network
+++ b/tests/network
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ set -eux
 # Install LXD
 install_lxd
 
-parentNIC="${1:-"$(ip route | awk '/^default/ {print $5}')"}"
+parentNIC="${1}"
 
 # Enable SR-IOV on nic and bring up
 enableNICSRIOV "${parentNIC}"
diff --git a/tests/network-sriov b/tests/network-sriov
index f01747b6c..89f26aa4b 100755
--- a/tests/network-sriov
+++ b/tests/network-sriov
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ set -eu
 # Install LXD
 install_lxd
 
-parentNIC="${1:-"$(ip route | awk '/^default/ {print $5}')"}"
+parentNIC="${1}"
 
 # Enable SR-IOV on nic and bring up
 enableNICSRIOV "${parentNIC}"