diff --git a/kernel/trace/Kconfig b/kernel/trace/Kconfig
index 1ea0d1234f4a..aa002cef924c 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/Kconfig
+++ b/kernel/trace/Kconfig
@@ -469,6 +469,18 @@ config FTRACE_STARTUP_TEST
 	  functioning properly. It will do tests on all the configured
 	  tracers of ftrace.
 
+config EVENT_TRACE_TEST_SYSCALLS
+	bool "Run selftest on syscall events"
+	depends on FTRACE_STARTUP_TEST
+	help
+	 This option will also enable testing every syscall event.
+	 It only enables the event and disables it and runs various loads
+	 with the event enabled. This adds a bit more time for kernel boot
+	 up since it runs this on every system call defined.
+
+	 TBD - enable a way to actually call the syscalls as we test their
+	       events
+
 config MMIOTRACE
 	bool "Memory mapped IO tracing"
 	depends on HAVE_MMIOTRACE_SUPPORT && PCI
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
index 0fa8f9faa61c..787f0fb0994e 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
@@ -1326,6 +1326,18 @@ static __init void event_trace_self_tests(void)
 		if (!call->regfunc)
 			continue;
 
+/*
+ * Testing syscall events here is pretty useless, but
+ * we still do it if configured. But this is time consuming.
+ * What we really need is a user thread to perform the
+ * syscalls as we test.
+ */
+#ifndef CONFIG_EVENT_TRACE_TEST_SYSCALLS
+		if (call->system &&
+		    strcmp(call->system, "syscalls") == 0)
+			continue;
+#endif
+
 		pr_info("Testing event %s: ", call->name);
 
 		/*