diff --git a/nixos/tests/kmscon.nix b/nixos/tests/kmscon.nix
index 28f2cdd1c3d3..cb20274c6ece 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/kmscon.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/kmscon.nix
@@ -33,12 +33,18 @@
 
     with subtest("ensure we can open a tty"):
       machine.wait_for_text("machine login:")
+
       machine.send_chars("alice\n")
       machine.wait_for_text("Password:")
+
       machine.send_chars("foobar\n")
       machine.wait_for_text("alice@machine")
-      machine.send_chars("echo $TERM\n")
-      machine.wait_for_text("xterm-256color")
+
+      machine.send_chars("echo $TERM | tee /tmp/term.txt\n")
+      machine.wait_until_succeeds("test -s /tmp/term.txt")
+      term = machine.succeed("cat /tmp/term.txt").strip()
+      assert term == "xterm-256color", f"Unexpected TERM value: {term!r}"
+
       machine.screenshot("tty.png")
   '';
 }