diff --git a/coverage.sh b/coverage.sh
index 09c5540..42856ab 100755
--- a/coverage.sh
+++ b/coverage.sh
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ if [ ! -e shared/mmdebstrap ] || [ mmdebstrap -nt shared/mmdebstrap ]; then
 fi
 
 starttime=
-total=123
+total=115
 skipped=0
 runtests=0
 i=1
@@ -1851,33 +1851,6 @@ END
 			./run_null.sh
 			runtests=$((runtests+1))
 		fi
-		# Devel::Cover doesn't survive mmdebstrap re-exec-ing itself
-		# with fakechroot, thus, we do an additional run where we
-		# explicitly run mmdebstrap with fakechroot from the start
-		if [ "$mode" = "fakechroot" ]; then
-			print_header "mode=$mode,variant=$variant: create tarball (ver 2)"
-			cat << END > shared/test.sh
-#!/bin/sh
-set -eu
-export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
-[ "\$(id -u)" -eq 0 ] && ! id -u user > /dev/null 2>&1 && adduser --gecos user --disabled-password user
-prefix=
-[ "\$(id -u)" -eq 0 ] && prefix="runuser -u user --"
-\$prefix fakechroot fakeroot $CMD --mode=$mode --variant=$variant $DEFAULT_DIST /tmp/debian-chroot.tar $mirror
-{ tar -tf /tmp/debian-chroot.tar;
-  printf "./etc/ld.so.cache\n./var/cache/ldconfig/\n";
-  [ "$variant" != "essential" ] && printf "./etc/.pwd.lock\n";
-} | sort | diff -u "./$variant.txt" -
-rm /tmp/debian-chroot.tar
-END
-			if [ "$HAVE_QEMU" = "yes" ]; then
-				./run_qemu.sh
-				runtests=$((runtests+1))
-			else
-				./run_null.sh
-				runtests=$((runtests+1))
-			fi
-		fi
 	done
 	# some variants are equal and some are strict superset of the last
 	# special case of the buildd variant: nothing is a superset of it
diff --git a/mmdebstrap b/mmdebstrap
index b7607bd..debb03f 100755
--- a/mmdebstrap
+++ b/mmdebstrap
@@ -84,6 +84,8 @@ my @devfiles = (
 #   3 -> debug output
 my $verbosity_level = 1;
 
+my $is_covering = !!(eval 'Devel::Cover::get_coverage()');
+
 sub debug {
     if ($verbosity_level < 3) {
 	return;
@@ -977,7 +979,11 @@ sub run_hooks($$) {
 		    # we execute ourselves under sh to avoid having to
 		    # implement a clever parser of the quoting used in $script
 		    # for the filenames
-		    exec 'sh', '-c', "$PROGRAM_NAME --hook-helper \"\$1\" \"\$2\" \"\$3\" \"\$4\" \"\$5\" $script",
+		    my $prefix = "";
+		    if($is_covering) {
+			$prefix = "$EXECUTABLE_NAME -MDevel::Cover=-silent,-nogcov ";
+		    }
+		    exec 'sh', '-c', "$prefix$PROGRAM_NAME --hook-helper \"\$1\" \"\$2\" \"\$3\" \"\$4\" \"\$5\" $script",
 			'exec', $options->{root}, $options->{mode}, $name, (defined $options->{qemu} ? "qemu-$options->{qemu}" : 'env', $verbosity_level);
 		}
 		waitpid($pid, 0);
@@ -2299,7 +2305,11 @@ sub main() {
 	} elsif (system('fakechroot --version>/dev/null') == 0) {
 	    # the next fallback is fakechroot
 	    # exec ourselves again but within fakechroot
-	    exec 'fakechroot', 'fakeroot', $PROGRAM_NAME, @ARGVORIG;
+	    my @prefix = ();
+	    if($is_covering) {
+		@prefix = ($EXECUTABLE_NAME, '-MDevel::Cover=-silent,-nogcov');
+	    }
+	    exec 'fakechroot', 'fakeroot', @prefix, $PROGRAM_NAME, @ARGVORIG;
 	} elsif (system('proot --version>/dev/null') == 0) {
 	    # and lastly, proot
 	    $options->{mode} = 'proot';
@@ -2322,7 +2332,11 @@ sub main() {
 	    error "need working fakechroot binary";
 	} else {
 	    # exec ourselves again but within fakechroot
-	    exec 'fakechroot', 'fakeroot', $PROGRAM_NAME, @ARGVORIG;
+	    my @prefix = ();
+	    if($is_covering) {
+		@prefix = ($EXECUTABLE_NAME, '-MDevel::Cover=-silent,-nogcov');
+	    }
+	    exec 'fakechroot', 'fakeroot', @prefix, $PROGRAM_NAME, @ARGVORIG;
 	}
     } elsif ($options->{mode} eq 'unshare') {
 	if (!test_unshare(1)) {