diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.config b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.config
deleted file mode 100644
index 9bd1a5a6fc..0000000000
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.config
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,41 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-#
-# Copyright (C) 2009 Red Hat, Inc.
-# Copyright (c) 2000-2003,2006 Silicon Graphics, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
-#
-# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
-# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
-# published by the Free Software Foundation.
-#
-# This program is distributed in the hope that it would be useful,
-# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
-# GNU General Public License for more details.
-#
-# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
-#
-# all tests should use a common language setting to prevent golden
-# output mismatches.
-export LANG=C
-
-PATH=".:$PATH"
-
-HOSTOS=$(uname -s)
-arch=$(uname -m)
-[[ "$arch" =~ "ppc64" ]] && qemu_arch=ppc64 || qemu_arch="$arch"
-
-# make sure we have a standard umask
-umask 022
-
-_optstr_add()
-{
-    if [ -n "$1" ]; then
-        echo "$1,$2"
-    else
-        echo "$2"
-    fi
-}
-
-# make sure this script returns success
-true
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
index 227e0a5be9..165b54a61e 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
@@ -17,6 +17,17 @@
 # along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 #
 
+export LANG=C
+
+PATH=".:$PATH"
+
+HOSTOS=$(uname -s)
+arch=$(uname -m)
+[[ "$arch" =~ "ppc64" ]] && qemu_arch=ppc64 || qemu_arch="$arch"
+
+# make sure we have a standard umask
+umask 022
+
 # bail out, setting up .notrun file
 _notrun()
 {
@@ -120,18 +131,14 @@ peek_file_raw()
     dd if="$1" bs=1 skip="$2" count="$3" status=none
 }
 
-config=common.config
-test -f $config || config=../common.config
-if ! test -f $config
-then
-    echo "$0: failed to find common.config"
-    exit 1
-fi
-if ! . $config
-    then
-    echo "$0: failed to source common.config"
-    exit 1
-fi
+_optstr_add()
+{
+    if [ -n "$1" ]; then
+        echo "$1,$2"
+    else
+        echo "$2"
+    fi
+}
 
 # Set the variables to the empty string to turn Valgrind off
 # for specific processes, e.g.