diff --git a/tests/podman.pm b/tests/podman.pm
index c0b77e50..c8202ed0 100644
--- a/tests/podman.pm
+++ b/tests/podman.pm
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@ sub run {
         # podman system tests use a relative path for podman-testing by default,
         # we need to set it to the location where the podman-tests package installs it.
         assert_script_run 'export PODMAN_TESTING=/usr/bin/podman-testing';
+        # load null_blk module which is needed for "podman run --device-read-bps" test case:
+        # https://github.com/containers/podman/pull/26022
+        assert_script_run 'modprobe null_blk nr_devices=1';
         # needed so we exit 1 when the bats command fails
         assert_script_run "set -o pipefail";
         assert_script_run "bats --filter-tags distro-integration /usr/share/podman/test/system | tee /tmp/podman-bats.txt", 600;