diff --git a/lib/common.py b/lib/common.py
index 76022bf86..3959a41c6 100644
--- a/lib/common.py
+++ b/lib/common.py
@@ -205,8 +205,9 @@ def wait_for(fn: Callable[[], object], msg: str | None = None, timeout_secs: int
             return
         if time.perf_counter() - start_time >= timeout_secs:
             expected = 'True' if not invert else 'False'
+            suffix = ": " + msg if msg else ""
             raise TimeoutError(
-                "Timeout reached while waiting for fn call to yield %s (%s)." % (expected, timeout_secs)
+                "Timed out after %ss waiting for condition to be %s%s" % (timeout_secs, expected, suffix)
             )
         time.sleep(retry_delay_secs)
 
diff --git a/tests/system/test_systemd.py b/tests/system/test_systemd.py
index bba6df6fa..af28e4db7 100644
--- a/tests/system/test_systemd.py
+++ b/tests/system/test_systemd.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import logging
 import re
 
+from lib.common import wait_for
 from lib.host import Host
 
 # Requirements:
@@ -23,14 +24,20 @@ def test_failed_units(host: Host) -> None:
 
 pytest.fixture(scope='module')
 def test_verify_default_target(host: Host) -> None:
-    analyse = host.ssh('systemd-analyze verify default.target')
-    err = False
-    polkit_msg = "Cannot add dependency job for unit polkit.service, ignoring: Unit not found."
-    for line in analyse.splitlines():
-        if line == polkit_msg:
-            pytest.xfail(f"drbd-reactor package must be fixed to remove dep to polkit: {polkit_msg}")
-        if line not in white_list_issues:
-            logging.error(f"{line}")
-            err = True
-
-    assert not err
+    def analyse_default_target() -> bool:
+        # Look at what is using memory
+        # TODO: to remove
+        host.ssh('ps -eo pid,ppid,%mem,rss,args ww --sort=-rss | head -n 11')
+        host.ssh('free')
+
+        analyse = host.ssh('systemd-analyze verify default.target')
+        polkit_msg = "Cannot add dependency job for unit polkit.service, ignoring: Unit not found."
+        for line in analyse.splitlines():
+            if line == polkit_msg:
+                pytest.xfail(f"drbd-reactor package must be fixed to remove dep to polkit: {polkit_msg}")
+            if line not in white_list_issues:
+                logging.error(f"{line}")
+                return False
+        return True
+
+    wait_for(analyse_default_target, "Wait for systemd-analyze verify default.target to be clean")