diff --git a/tests/avocado/tesseract_utils.py b/tests/avocado/tesseract_utils.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 476f528147..0000000000
--- a/tests/avocado/tesseract_utils.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,46 +0,0 @@
-# ...
-#
-# Copyright (c) 2019 Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <f4bug@amsat.org>
-#
-# This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2 or
-# later. See the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
-
-import re
-import logging
-
-from avocado.utils import process
-from avocado.utils.path import find_command, CmdNotFoundError
-
-def tesseract_available(expected_version):
-    try:
-        find_command('tesseract')
-    except CmdNotFoundError:
-        return False
-    res = process.run('tesseract --version')
-    try:
-        version = res.stdout_text.split()[1]
-    except IndexError:
-        version = res.stderr_text.split()[1]
-    return int(version.split('.')[0]) >= expected_version
-
-    match = re.match(r'tesseract\s(\d)', res)
-    if match is None:
-        return False
-    # now this is guaranteed to be a digit
-    return int(match.groups()[0]) >= expected_version
-
-
-def tesseract_ocr(image_path, tesseract_args='', tesseract_version=3):
-    console_logger = logging.getLogger('tesseract')
-    console_logger.debug(image_path)
-    if tesseract_version == 4:
-        tesseract_args += ' --oem 1'
-    proc = process.run("tesseract {} {} stdout".format(tesseract_args,
-                                                       image_path))
-    lines = []
-    for line in proc.stdout_text.split('\n'):
-        sline = line.strip()
-        if len(sline):
-            console_logger.debug(sline)
-            lines += [sline]
-    return lines
diff --git a/tests/functional/meson.build b/tests/functional/meson.build
index fba3891e16..46b6405a58 100644
--- a/tests/functional/meson.build
+++ b/tests/functional/meson.build
@@ -37,6 +37,10 @@ tests_loongarch64_thorough = [
   'loongarch64_virt',
 ]
 
+tests_m68k_thorough = [
+  'm68k_nextcube'
+]
+
 tests_microblaze_thorough = [
   'microblaze_s3adsp1800'
 ]
diff --git a/tests/functional/qemu_test/tesseract.py b/tests/functional/qemu_test/tesseract.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c4087b7c11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/functional/qemu_test/tesseract.py
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+# ...
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2019 Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <f4bug@amsat.org>
+#
+# This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2 or
+# later. See the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
+
+import re
+import logging
+
+from . import has_cmd, run_cmd
+
+def tesseract_available(expected_version):
+    if not has_cmd('tesseract'):
+        return False
+    (stdout, stderr, ret) = run_cmd([ 'tesseract', '--version'])
+    if ret:
+        return False
+    version = stdout.split()[1]
+    return int(version.split('.')[0]) >= expected_version
+
+def tesseract_ocr(image_path, tesseract_args=''):
+    console_logger = logging.getLogger('console')
+    console_logger.debug(image_path)
+    (stdout, stderr, ret) = run_cmd(['tesseract', image_path,
+                                     'stdout'])
+    if ret:
+        return None
+    lines = []
+    for line in stdout.split('\n'):
+        sline = line.strip()
+        if len(sline):
+            console_logger.debug(sline)
+            lines += [sline]
+    return lines
diff --git a/tests/avocado/machine_m68k_nextcube.py b/tests/functional/test_m68k_nextcube.py
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
similarity index 76%
rename from tests/avocado/machine_m68k_nextcube.py
rename to tests/functional/test_m68k_nextcube.py
index 1f3c883910..c394499d8c
--- a/tests/avocado/machine_m68k_nextcube.py
+++ b/tests/functional/test_m68k_nextcube.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+#
 # Functional test that boots a VM and run OCR on the framebuffer
 #
 # Copyright (c) 2019 Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <f4bug@amsat.org>
@@ -8,10 +10,10 @@
 import os
 import time
 
-from avocado_qemu import QemuSystemTest
-from avocado import skipUnless
+from qemu_test import QemuSystemTest, Asset
+from unittest import skipUnless
 
-from tesseract_utils import tesseract_available, tesseract_ocr
+from qemu_test.tesseract import tesseract_available, tesseract_ocr
 
 PIL_AVAILABLE = True
 try:
@@ -21,19 +23,15 @@
 
 
 class NextCubeMachine(QemuSystemTest):
-    """
-    :avocado: tags=arch:m68k
-    :avocado: tags=machine:next-cube
-    :avocado: tags=device:framebuffer
-    """
 
     timeout = 15
 
+    ASSET_ROM = Asset(('https://sourceforge.net/p/previous/code/1350/tree/'
+                       'trunk/src/Rev_2.5_v66.BIN?format=raw'),
+                      'b3534796abae238a0111299fc406a9349f7fee24')
+
     def check_bootrom_framebuffer(self, screenshot_path):
-        rom_url = ('https://sourceforge.net/p/previous/code/1350/tree/'
-                   'trunk/src/Rev_2.5_v66.BIN?format=raw')
-        rom_hash = 'b3534796abae238a0111299fc406a9349f7fee24'
-        rom_path = self.fetch_asset(rom_url, asset_hash=rom_hash)
+        rom_path = self.ASSET_ROM.fetch()
 
         self.vm.add_args('-bios', rom_path)
         self.vm.launch()
@@ -48,6 +46,7 @@ def check_bootrom_framebuffer(self, screenshot_path):
 
     @skipUnless(PIL_AVAILABLE, 'Python PIL not installed')
     def test_bootrom_framebuffer_size(self):
+        self.set_machine('next-cube')
         screenshot_path = os.path.join(self.workdir, "dump.ppm")
         self.check_bootrom_framebuffer(screenshot_path)
 
@@ -60,11 +59,15 @@ def test_bootrom_framebuffer_size(self):
     # that it is still alpha-level software.
     @skipUnless(tesseract_available(4), 'tesseract OCR tool not available')
     def test_bootrom_framebuffer_ocr_with_tesseract(self):
+        self.set_machine('next-cube')
         screenshot_path = os.path.join(self.workdir, "dump.ppm")
         self.check_bootrom_framebuffer(screenshot_path)
-        lines = tesseract_ocr(screenshot_path, tesseract_version=4)
+        lines = tesseract_ocr(screenshot_path)
         text = '\n'.join(lines)
         self.assertIn('Testing the FPU', text)
         self.assertIn('System test failed. Error code', text)
         self.assertIn('Boot command', text)
         self.assertIn('Next>', text)
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    QemuSystemTest.main()
