diff --git a/tests/hwsim/vm/inside.sh b/tests/hwsim/vm/inside.sh
index accc0ddec..c22289cc3 100755
--- a/tests/hwsim/vm/inside.sh
+++ b/tests/hwsim/vm/inside.sh
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@ mount sysfs -t sysfs /sys
 # needed for tracing
 mount debugfs -t debugfs /sys/kernel/debug
 
+# for inside telnet
+mkdir /dev/pts
+mount devpts -t devpts /dev/pts
+
 export PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
 
 # reboot on any sort of crash
@@ -22,10 +26,12 @@ sysctl kernel.panic=1
 TESTDIR=$(sed 's/.*testdir=\([^ ]*\) .*/\1/' /proc/cmdline)
 TIMEWARP=$(sed 's/.*timewarp=\([^ ]*\) .*/\1/' /proc/cmdline)
 EPATH=$(sed 's/.*EPATH=\([^ ]*\) .*/\1/' /proc/cmdline)
+TELNET=$(sed 's/.*TELNET=\([^ ]*\) .*/\1/' /proc/cmdline)
 ARGS=$(sed 's/.*ARGS=\([^ ]*\)\( \|$\).*/\1/' /proc/cmdline)
 
 # create /dev entries we need
 mknod -m 660 /dev/ttyS0 c 4 64
+mknod -m 666 /dev/ptmx c 5 2
 mknod -m 660 /dev/random c 1 8
 mknod -m 660 /dev/urandom c 1 9
 mknod -m 666 /dev/null c 1 3
@@ -92,8 +98,27 @@ if [ "$TIMEWARP" = "1" ] ; then
     ) &
 fi
 
+echo hwsimvm > /proc/sys/kernel/hostname
 echo 8 8 8 8 > /proc/sys/kernel/printk
 
+cat > /tmp/bin/login <<EOF
+#!/bin/sh
+
+export PS1='\h:\w\$ '
+exec bash
+EOF
+chmod +x /tmp/bin/login
+
+if [ "$TELNET" = "1" ] ; then
+  ip link set eth0 up
+  ip addr add 172.16.0.15/24 dev eth0
+  which in.telnetd >/dev/null && (
+    while true ; do
+      in.telnetd -debug 23 -L /tmp/bin/login
+    done
+  ) &
+fi
+
 # check if we're rebooting due to a kernel panic ...
 if grep -q 'Kernel panic' /tmp/logs/console ; then
 	echo "KERNEL CRASHED!" >/dev/ttyS0
diff --git a/tests/hwsim/vm/parallel-vm.py b/tests/hwsim/vm/parallel-vm.py
index c9baf5a6c..cf7f8df65 100755
--- a/tests/hwsim/vm/parallel-vm.py
+++ b/tests/hwsim/vm/parallel-vm.py
@@ -356,6 +356,8 @@ def main():
     p.add_argument('--valgrind', dest='valgrind', action='store_const',
                    const=True, default=False,
                    help="run tests under valgrind")
+    p.add_argument('--telnet', dest='telnet', metavar='<baseport>', type=int,
+                   help="enable telnet server inside VMs, specify the base port here")
     p.add_argument('params', nargs='*')
     args = p.parse_args()
 
@@ -435,6 +437,8 @@ def main():
                '--timestamp', str(timestamp),
                '--ext', 'srv.%d' % (i + 1),
                '-i'] + codecov_args + extra_args
+        if args.telnet:
+            cmd += [ '--telnet', str(args.telnet + i) ]
         vm[i] = {}
         vm[i]['first_run_done'] = False
         vm[i]['proc'] = subprocess.Popen(cmd,
diff --git a/tests/hwsim/vm/vm-run.sh b/tests/hwsim/vm/vm-run.sh
index 2972fb1b0..c68e5568d 100755
--- a/tests/hwsim/vm/vm-run.sh
+++ b/tests/hwsim/vm/vm-run.sh
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ TIMESTAMP=$(date +%s)
 DATE=$TIMESTAMP
 CODECOV=no
 TIMEWARP=0
+TELNET_QEMU=
+TELNET_ARG=0
 DELAY=0
 CODECOV_DIR=
 while [ "$1" != "" ]; do
@@ -73,6 +75,11 @@ while [ "$1" != "" ]; do
 		--timewrap ) shift
 			TIMEWARP=1
 			;;
+		--telnet ) shift
+			TELNET_ARG=1
+			TELNET_QEMU="-net nic,model=virtio -net user,id=telnet,restrict=on,net=172.16.0.0/24,hostfwd=tcp:127.0.0.1:$1-:23"
+			shift
+			;;
 	        --delay ) shift
 			DELAY=$1
 			shift
@@ -134,7 +141,8 @@ $KVM \
 	-fsdev local,security_model=none,id=fsdev-logs,path="$LOGDIR",writeout=immediate \
 	-device virtio-9p-pci,id=fs-logs,fsdev=fsdev-logs,mount_tag=logshare \
 	-monitor null -serial stdio -serial file:$LOGDIR/console \
-	-append "mac80211_hwsim.support_p2p_device=0 mac80211_hwsim.channels=$CHANNELS mac80211_hwsim.radios=7 cfg80211.dyndbg=+p mac80211.dyndbg=+p mac80211_hwsim.dyndbg=+p init=$CMD testdir=$TESTDIR timewarp=$TIMEWARP console=$KVMOUT root=/dev/root rootflags=trans=virtio,version=9p2000.u ro rootfstype=9p EPATH=$EPATH ARGS=$argsfile" | \
+	$TELNET_QEMU \
+	-append "mac80211_hwsim.support_p2p_device=0 mac80211_hwsim.channels=$CHANNELS mac80211_hwsim.radios=7 cfg80211.dyndbg=+p mac80211.dyndbg=+p mac80211_hwsim.dyndbg=+p init=$CMD testdir=$TESTDIR timewarp=$TIMEWARP TELNET=$TELNET_ARG console=$KVMOUT root=/dev/root rootflags=trans=virtio,version=9p2000.u ro rootfstype=9p EPATH=$EPATH ARGS=$argsfile" | \
 	sed -u '0,/VM has started up/d'
 
 if [ $CODECOV = "yes" ]; then