diff --git a/libdazzle.spec b/libdazzle.spec
index fa9ffa0..48d2de2 100644
--- a/libdazzle.spec
+++ b/libdazzle.spec
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ developing applications that use %{name}.
 
 
 %check
+# run tests one at a time to try and prevent random failures with xvfb
+%define _smp_build_ncpus 1
 xvfb-run -w 10 eval "%meson_test"
 
 
@@ -86,6 +88,9 @@ xvfb-run -w 10 eval "%meson_test"
 
 
 %changelog
+* Fri Jan 21 2022 Yanko Kaneti <yaneti@declera.com> - 3.42.0-3
+- Run test one at a time to tyy to fix FTBFS
+
 * Thu Jan 20 2022 Fedora Release Engineering <releng@fedoraproject.org> - 3.42.0-2
 - Rebuilt for https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_36_Mass_Rebuild