diff --git a/tests/integration/help.bats b/tests/integration/help.bats
index c512d7a9e..04bbc80cf 100644
--- a/tests/integration/help.bats
+++ b/tests/integration/help.bats
@@ -2,6 +2,13 @@
 
 load helpers
 
+function setup() {
+	# It does not make sense to repeat these trivial tests for non-root.
+	# Also, they fail due to $ROOT not being set and XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
+	# pointing to another user's directory after sudo rootless.
+	requires root
+}
+
 @test "runc -h" {
 	runc -h
 	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
diff --git a/tests/integration/helpers.bash b/tests/integration/helpers.bash
index 91cd9967c..bc6bf4b98 100644
--- a/tests/integration/helpers.bash
+++ b/tests/integration/helpers.bash
@@ -54,7 +54,8 @@ function runc() {
 
 # Raw wrapper for runc.
 function __runc() {
-	"$RUNC" ${RUNC_USE_SYSTEMD+--systemd-cgroup} --root "$ROOT/state" "$@"
+	"$RUNC" ${RUNC_USE_SYSTEMD+--systemd-cgroup} \
+		${ROOT:+--root "$ROOT/state"} "$@"
 }
 
 # Wrapper for runc spec.