diff --git a/tests/Dockerfile.fedora b/tests/Dockerfile.fedora
index d325c60493..def449db83 100644
--- a/tests/Dockerfile.fedora
+++ b/tests/Dockerfile.fedora
@@ -61,8 +61,6 @@ RUN rm -f /usr/lib/rpm/macros.d/macros.transaction_ima
 RUN dnf -y --enablerepo=updates install "sequoia-sq >= 1.0"
 RUN dnf clean all
 
-RUN echo "%_dbpath $(rpm --eval '%_dbpath')" > /root/.rpmmacros
-
 # Workaround for pkgconf(1)'s unlisted dependency on rpm.
 # This is needed for cmake to work without an rpm installation.
 RUN ln -sf $(rpm --eval '%{_target_platform}%{?_gnu}')-pkg-config \
diff --git a/tests/mktree.common b/tests/mktree.common
index 6c00a95b19..c1bcd4d2ae 100644
--- a/tests/mktree.common
+++ b/tests/mktree.common
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@ make_install()
     mkdir -p $DESTDIR/build
     ln -sf ../data/SOURCES $DESTDIR/build/
 
+    # setup an empty db that all tests are pointed to by default
+    dbpath="/var/lib/rpm-testsuite"
+    mkdir -p $DESTDIR/$dbpath
+    echo "%_dbpath $dbpath" > $DESTDIR/@CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_SYSCONFDIR@/rpm/macros.db
+    rpmdb --dbpath $DESTDIR/$dbpath --initdb
+
     # append in case Dockerfile put something in there already
     cat @CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR@/data/macros.testenv >> $DESTDIR/root/.rpmmacros
     # gpg-connect-agent is very, very unhappy if this doesn't exist