diff --git a/testsuite/config/unix.exp b/testsuite/config/unix.exp
index a43dbaeb..2590f95b 100644
--- a/testsuite/config/unix.exp
+++ b/testsuite/config/unix.exp
@@ -195,8 +195,8 @@ proc make_testshm_proc { } {
     set testshmproc_spawnid $spawn_id
     expect {
 	-i $testshmproc_spawnid
-	-re "^SHMID: (\\d+)" { set shmid $expect_out(1,string) }
-	default { fail "spawning testshm" }
+	-re "^SHMID: (\[0-9a-f\]+)" { set shmid $expect_out(1,string) }
+	default { set shmid "" }
     }
 
 }
diff --git a/testsuite/pmap.test/pmap.exp b/testsuite/pmap.test/pmap.exp
index 3b7e50ef..1622cea6 100644
--- a/testsuite/pmap.test/pmap.exp
+++ b/testsuite/pmap.test/pmap.exp
@@ -68,6 +68,10 @@ expect_pass $test "$pmap_initname\$"
 
 set test "pmap finding shm"
 make_testshm_proc
-spawn $pmap $testshmproc_pid
-expect_pass $test "\[ shmid=0x$shmid \]"
+if { $shmid == "" } {
+    unsupported "$test - could not start test_shm"
+} else {
+    spawn $pmap $testshmproc_pid
+    expect_pass $test "\[ shmid=0x$shmid \]"
+}
 kill_testshm_proc