diff --git a/tests/admin-test.sh b/tests/admin-test.sh
index c716d0a5..54b93321 100644
--- a/tests/admin-test.sh
+++ b/tests/admin-test.sh
@@ -306,8 +306,7 @@ prev_rev=$(${CMD_PREFIX} ostree rev-parse --repo=sysroot/ostree/repo testos/buil
 assert_not_streq ${head_rev} ${prev_rev}
 # check that we can't "upgrade" to an older commit without --allow-downgrade
 if ${CMD_PREFIX} ostree admin upgrade --os=testos --override-commit=${prev_rev} 2> err.txt; then
-    ${CMD_PREFIX} ostree --repo=sysroot/ostree/repo show "${prev_rev}"
-    ${CMD_PREFIX} ostree --repo=sysroot/ostree/repo show "${head_rev}"
+    cat err.txt
     fatal "downgraded without --allow-downgrade?"
 fi
 assert_file_has_content err.txt "Upgrade.*is chronologically older"