diff --git a/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh
index 4e103303fc7..3f07cb732bf 100755
--- a/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh
+++ b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ declare -a devcontainer_opts
 if [ -n "${QEMU_DEVCONTAINER_URL}" ] ; then
     echo "++++ Using custom devcontainer URL '${QEMU_DEVCONTAINER_URL}'"
     devcontainer_opts+=( "--devcontainer-url" "${QEMU_DEVCONTAINER_URL}" )
-elif [ -n "${QEMU_DEVCONTAINER_FILE}" ]; then
+elif [[ -n "${QEMU_DEVCONTAINER_FILE}" && -f "${QEMU_DEVCONTAINER_FILE}" ]]; then
     echo "++++ Using custom devcontainer FILE '${QEMU_DEVCONTAINER_FILE}'"
     devcontainer_opts+=( "--devcontainer-file" "${QEMU_DEVCONTAINER_FILE}" )
 fi
diff --git a/run_local_tests.sh b/run_local_tests.sh
index e4ee0c8a08a..93cb28090db 100755
--- a/run_local_tests.sh
+++ b/run_local_tests.sh
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ export QEMU_IMAGE_NAME=/work/__build__/images/images/${arch@Q}-usr/latest/flatca
 export QEMU_UEFI_FIRMWARE=/work/__build__/images/images/${arch@Q}-usr/latest/flatcar_production_qemu_uefi_efi_code.qcow2
 export QEMU_UEFI_OVMF_VARS=/work/__build__/images/images/${arch@Q}-usr/latest/flatcar_production_qemu_uefi_efi_vars.qcow2
 export QEMU_UPDATE_PAYLOAD=/work/__build__/images/images/${arch@Q}-usr/latest/flatcar_test_update.gz
+export QEMU_DEVCONTAINER_FILE=/work/__build__/images/images/${arch@Q}-usr/latest/flatcar_developer_container.bin.bz2
 export PARALLEL_TESTS=${parallel@Q}
 EOF