diff --git a/release.nix b/release.nix
index 813c3975..9d2af8f9 100644
--- a/release.nix
+++ b/release.nix
@@ -154,6 +154,7 @@ in rec {
           gitAndTools.topGit mercurial darcs subversion bazaar openssl bzip2
           guile # optional, for Guile + Guix support
           perlDeps perl
+          postgresql92 # for running the tests
         ];
 
       hydraPath = lib.makeSearchPath "bin" (
diff --git a/tests/Makefile.am b/tests/Makefile.am
index 8b8880f7..7a11bca5 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile.am
+++ b/tests/Makefile.am
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
   BZR_HOME="$(abs_builddir)/data"			\
-  HYDRA_DBI="dbi:Pg:dbname=hydra-test-suite;"		\
+  HYDRA_DBI="dbi:Pg:dbname=hydra-test-suite;port=6433"	\
   HYDRA_DATA="$(abs_builddir)/data"			\
   HYDRA_HOME="$(top_srcdir)/src"			\
   HYDRA_CONFIG=						\
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
   NIX_LOG_DIR="$(abs_builddir)/nix/var/log/nix"		\
   NIX_BUILD_HOOK=					\
   PERL5LIB="$(srcdir):$(top_srcdir)/src/lib:$$PERL5LIB"	\
-  PATH=$(abs_top_srcdir)/src/script:$(abs_top_srcdir)/src/hydra-eval-jobs:$$PATH \
+  PATH=$(abs_top_srcdir)/src/script:$(abs_top_srcdir)/src/hydra-eval-jobs:$(abs_top_srcdir)/src/hydra-queue-runner:$$PATH \
   perl -w
 
 EXTRA_DIST = \
diff --git a/tests/set-up.pl b/tests/set-up.pl
index ff72483f..63679b63 100644
--- a/tests/set-up.pl
+++ b/tests/set-up.pl
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
 use strict;
-system("createdb hydra-test-suite") == 0 or die;
+system("initdb -D postgres") == 0 or die;
+system("pg_ctl -D postgres -o \"-F -p 6433 -h ''\" -w start") == 0 or die;
+system("createdb -p 6433 hydra-test-suite") == 0 or die;
 system("hydra-init") == 0 or die;
diff --git a/tests/tear-down.pl b/tests/tear-down.pl
index 32e51a87..f30bb278 100644
--- a/tests/tear-down.pl
+++ b/tests/tear-down.pl
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 use strict;
-system("chmod -R a+w nix") == 0 or die;
-system("rm -rf data nix git-repo hg-repo svn-repo svn-checkout svn-checkout-repo bzr-repo bzr-checkout-repo darcs-repo") == 0 or die;
-system("rm -f .*-state") == 0 or die;
-system("dropdb hydra-test-suite") == 0 or die;
+
+my $fail = 0;
+
+system("dropdb -p 6433 hydra-test-suite") == 0 or $fail = 1;
+system("pg_ctl -D postgres -w stop") == 0 or $fail = 1;
+
+system("chmod -R a+w nix") == 0 or $fail = 1;
+system("rm -rf postgres data nix git-repo hg-repo svn-repo svn-checkout svn-checkout-repo bzr-repo bzr-checkout-repo darcs-repo") == 0 or $fail = 1;
+system("rm -f .*-state") == 0 or $fail = 1;
+
+exit $fail;