diff --git a/buildutil/tap-test b/buildutil/tap-test
index d2dba0f4..af42b623 100755
--- a/buildutil/tap-test
+++ b/buildutil/tap-test
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 #! /bin/bash
 #
-# Run a test in tap mode, ensuring we have a temporary directory.
+# Run a test in tap mode, ensuring we have a temporary directory.  We
+# always use /var/tmp because we might want to use user xattrs, which
+# aren't available on tmpfs.
 #
 # The test binary is passed as $1
 
 srcd=$(cd $(dirname $1) && pwd)
 bn=$(basename $1)
-tempdir=$(mktemp -d /tmp/tap-test.XXXXXX)
+tempdir=$(mktemp -d /var/tmp/tap-test.XXXXXX)
 touch ${tempdir}/.testtmp
 function cleanup () {
     if test -n "${TEST_SKIP_CLEANUP:-}"; then
diff --git a/tests/libtest.sh b/tests/libtest.sh
index 14952e4b..04622df9 100644
--- a/tests/libtest.sh
+++ b/tests/libtest.sh
@@ -72,7 +72,8 @@ fi
 export MALLOC_CHECK_=3
 export MALLOC_PERTURB_=$(($RANDOM % 255 + 1))
 
-TEST_DATA_DIR=`mktemp -d /tmp/test-flatpak-XXXXXX`
+# We need this to be in /var/tmp because /tmp has no xattr support
+TEST_DATA_DIR=`mktemp -d /var/tmp/test-flatpak-XXXXXX`
 mkdir -p ${TEST_DATA_DIR}/home
 mkdir -p ${TEST_DATA_DIR}/runtime
 mkdir -p ${TEST_DATA_DIR}/system
diff --git a/tests/testlibrary.c b/tests/testlibrary.c
index fbba1971..77d5c8ff 100644
--- a/tests/testlibrary.c
+++ b/tests/testlibrary.c
@@ -799,7 +799,7 @@ global_setup (void)
   g_autofree char *datadir = NULL;
   g_autofree char *homedir = NULL;
 
-  testdir = g_strdup ("/tmp/flatpak-test-XXXXXX");
+  testdir = g_strdup ("/var/tmp/flatpak-test-XXXXXX");
   g_mkdtemp (testdir);
   g_test_message ("testdir: %s", testdir);