diff --git a/lib/bb/tests/setup.py b/lib/bb/tests/setup.py
index e320cdf56..3469bcc94 100644
--- a/lib/bb/tests/setup.py
+++ b/lib/bb/tests/setup.py
@@ -294,7 +294,7 @@ print("BBPATH is {{}}".format(os.environ["BBPATH"]))
                                }
         for cf, v in test_configurations.items():
             for c in v['buildconfigs']:
-                out = self.runbbsetup("init --non-interactive {} {}".format(v['cmdline'], c))
+                out = self.runbbsetup("--validate init --non-interactive {} {}".format(v['cmdline'], c))
                 buildpath = os.path.join(self.tempdir, 'bitbake-builds', '{}-{}'.format(cf, c))
                 with open(os.path.join(buildpath, 'config', "config-upstream.json")) as f:
                     config_upstream = json.load(f)