diff --git a/tests/docker/Makefile.include b/tests/docker/Makefile.include
index c72cddbde3..7a63a3b7f7 100644
--- a/tests/docker/Makefile.include
+++ b/tests/docker/Makefile.include
@@ -11,8 +11,10 @@ HOST_ARCH = $(if $(ARCH),$(ARCH),$(shell uname -m))
 DOCKER_SUFFIX := .docker
 DOCKER_FILES_DIR := $(SRC_PATH)/tests/docker/dockerfiles
 # we don't run tests on intermediate images (used as base by another image)
-DOCKER_PARTIAL_IMAGES := debian10 debian11 debian-bootstrap empty
-DOCKER_IMAGES := $(sort $(notdir $(basename $(wildcard $(DOCKER_FILES_DIR)/*.docker))))
+DOCKER_PARTIAL_IMAGES := debian10 debian11
+# we don't directly build virtual images (they are used to build other images)
+DOCKER_VIRTUAL_IMAGES := debian-bootstrap debian-toolchain empty
+DOCKER_IMAGES := $(sort $(filter-out $(DOCKER_VIRTUAL_IMAGES), $(notdir $(basename $(wildcard $(DOCKER_FILES_DIR)/*.docker)))))
 DOCKER_TARGETS := $(patsubst %,docker-image-%,$(DOCKER_IMAGES))
 # Use a global constant ccache directory to speed up repetitive builds
 DOCKER_CCACHE_DIR := $$HOME/.cache/qemu-docker-ccache
@@ -226,7 +228,7 @@ DOCKER_PARTIAL_IMAGES += fedora-cris-cross
 # packages.
 
 # Expand all the pre-requistes for each docker image and test combination
-$(foreach i,$(filter-out $(DOCKER_PARTIAL_IMAGES),$(DOCKER_IMAGES)), \
+$(foreach i,$(filter-out $(DOCKER_PARTIAL_IMAGES) $(DOCKER_VIRTUAL_IMAGES),$(DOCKER_IMAGES)), \
 	$(foreach t,$(DOCKER_TESTS), \
 		$(eval .PHONY: docker-$t@$i) \
 		$(eval docker-$t@$i: docker-image-$i docker-run-$t@$i) \