diff --git a/nixos/modules/tests/private-storage.nix b/nixos/modules/tests/private-storage.nix
index bf15b39763d6c3d2ffdfcb16214f2b3e093087d4..e085f8bc7142da4067745bdee233c82e7b1e8d1c 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/tests/private-storage.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/tests/private-storage.nix
@@ -177,8 +177,21 @@ in {
   # Test the machines with a Perl program (sobbing).
   testScript =
     ''
-      # Start booting all the VMs in parallel to speed up operations down below.
-      startAll;
+      # Boot the VMs.  We used to do them all in parallel but the boot
+      # sequence got flaky at some point for some reason I don't
+      # understand. :/ It might be related to this:
+      #
+      # https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixos-ppc64le-vm-does-not-have-dev-vda-device/11548/9
+      #
+      # See <nixpkgs/nixos/modules/virtualisation/qemu-vm.nix> for the Nix
+      # that constructs the QEMU command that gets run.
+      #
+      # Boot them one at a time for now.
+      $issuer->connect();
+      $introducer->connect();
+      $storage->connect();
+      $client->connect();
+      $api_stripe_com->connect();
 
       # The issuer and the storage server should accept SSH connections.  This
       # doesn't prove it is so but if it fails it's a pretty good indication