diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/net/openvswitch/openvswitch.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/net/openvswitch/openvswitch.sh
index bab7436c6834..a0f4764ad0af 100755
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/net/openvswitch/openvswitch.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/net/openvswitch/openvswitch.sh
@@ -128,8 +128,10 @@ ovs_add_netns_and_veths () {
 		ovs_add_if "$1" "$2" "$4" -u || return 1
 	fi
 
-	[ $TRACING -eq 1 ] && ovs_netns_spawn_daemon "$1" "$ns" \
-			tcpdump -i any -s 65535
+	if [ $TRACING -eq 1 ]; then
+		ovs_netns_spawn_daemon "$1" "$3" tcpdump -l -i any -s 6553
+		ovs_wait grep -q "listening on any" ${ovs_dir}/stderr
+	fi
 
 	return 0
 }