diff --git a/ci/build.sh b/ci/build.sh
index c7cba6ffa8..f6db4d2a7f 100644
--- a/ci/build.sh
+++ b/ci/build.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ export VIR_TEST_DEBUG=1
 # populated at build time from the Dockerfile. A typical use case would
 # be to pass options to trigger cross-compilation
 
-meson setup build --werror $MESON_OPTS $CI_MESON_ARGS || \
+meson setup build --werror -Dsystem=true $MESON_OPTS $CI_MESON_ARGS || \
 (cat build/meson-logs/meson-log.txt && exit 1)
 
 ninja -C build $CI_NINJA_ARGS