diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/runtime/ping.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/runtime/ping.py
index d6a0c28628..935f638891 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oeqa/runtime/ping.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/runtime/ping.py
@@ -1,11 +1,17 @@
 import subprocess
 import unittest
 import sys
+import time
 from oeqa.oetest import oeRuntimeTest
 
 class PingTest(oeRuntimeTest):
 
     def test_ping(self):
-        status = subprocess.call("ping -w 30 -c 1 %s" % oeRuntimeTest.tc.qemu.ip, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
-        self.assertEqual(status, 0)
-
+        output = ''
+        status = None
+        endtime = time.time() + 30
+        while status != 0 and time.time() < endtime:
+            proc = subprocess.Popen("ping -c 1 %s" % oeRuntimeTest.tc.qemu.ip, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+            output += proc.communicate()[0]
+            status = proc.poll()
+        self.assertEqual(status, 0, msg = "No echo reply, ping output is:\n%s" % output)