diff --git a/tests/acceptance/virtiofs_submounts.py b/tests/acceptance/virtiofs_submounts.py
index 949ca87a83..9a69b6b17b 100644
--- a/tests/acceptance/virtiofs_submounts.py
+++ b/tests/acceptance/virtiofs_submounts.py
@@ -228,6 +228,18 @@ class VirtiofsSubmountsTest(BootLinux):
     def setUp(self):
         vmlinuz = self.params.get('vmlinuz')
         if vmlinuz is None:
+            """
+            The Linux kernel supports FUSE auto-submounts only as of 5.10.
+            boot_linux.py currently provides Fedora 31, whose kernel is too
+            old, so this test cannot pass with the on-image kernel (you are
+            welcome to try, hence the option to force such a test with
+            -p vmlinuz='').  Therefore, for now the user must provide a
+            sufficiently new custom kernel, or effectively explicitly
+            request failure with -p vmlinuz=''.
+            Once an image with a sufficiently new kernel is available
+            (probably Fedora 34), we can make -p vmlinuz='' the default, so
+            that this parameter no longer needs to be specified.
+            """
             self.cancel('vmlinuz parameter not set; you must point it to a '
                         'Linux kernel binary to test (to run this test with ' \
                         'the on-image kernel, set it to an empty string)')