diff --git a/tests/chrootless b/tests/chrootless
index 4a2548b..7a9d082 100644
--- a/tests/chrootless
+++ b/tests/chrootless
@@ -3,11 +3,9 @@ set -eu
 export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
 export SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH={{ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH }}
 trap "rm -f /tmp/chrootless.tar /tmp/root.tar" EXIT INT TERM
-# we need --hook-dir=./hooks/merged-usr because usrmerge does not understand
-# DPKG_ROOT
 for INCLUDE in '' 'apt' 'apt,build-essential' 'systemd-sysv'; do
   for MODE in root chrootless; do
-    {{ CMD }} --mode=$MODE --variant={{ VARIANT }} --hook-dir=./hooks/merged-usr \
+    {{ CMD }} --mode=$MODE --variant={{ VARIANT }} \
       ${INCLUDE:+--include="$INCLUDE"} --skip=check/chrootless \
       {{ DIST }} "/tmp/$MODE.tar" {{ MIRROR }}
   done
diff --git a/tests/chrootless-fakeroot b/tests/chrootless-fakeroot
index cbddc21..2715c69 100644
--- a/tests/chrootless-fakeroot
+++ b/tests/chrootless-fakeroot
@@ -22,18 +22,16 @@ MMTARFILTER=
 [ -x /usr/bin/mmtarfilter ] && MMTARFILTER=/usr/bin/mmtarfilter
 [ -x ./tarfilter ] && MMTARFILTER=./tarfilter
 
-# we need --hook-dir=./hooks/merged-usr because usrmerge does not understand
-# DPKG_ROOT
 # permissions drwxr-sr-x and extended attributes of ./var/log/journal/ cannot
 # be preserved under fakeroot
 # this applies to 'z' lines in files in /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/
 for INCLUDE in '' 'apt' 'apt,build-essential' 'systemd-sysv'; do
-  {{ CMD }} --variant={{ VARIANT }} --hook-dir=./hooks/merged-usr \
+  {{ CMD }} --variant={{ VARIANT }} \
     ${INCLUDE:+--include="$INCLUDE"} \
     {{ DIST }} - {{ MIRROR }} \
     | "$MMTARFILTER" --path-exclude="/var/log/journal" --path-exclude="/etc/credstore*" \
       >/tmp/root.tar
-  $prefix fakeroot {{ CMD }} --mode={{ MODE }} --variant={{ VARIANT }} --hook-dir=./hooks/merged-usr \
+  $prefix fakeroot {{ CMD }} --mode={{ MODE }} --variant={{ VARIANT }} \
     ${INCLUDE:+--include="$INCLUDE"} \
     {{ DIST }} - {{ MIRROR }} \
     | "$MMTARFILTER" --path-exclude="/var/log/journal" --path-exclude="/etc/credstore*" \
diff --git a/tests/chrootless-foreign b/tests/chrootless-foreign
index 0317f12..f0d5ebf 100644
--- a/tests/chrootless-foreign
+++ b/tests/chrootless-foreign
@@ -26,9 +26,6 @@ fi
 [ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ]
 [ -e "/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/qemu-$(deb2qemu "$arch")" ]
 
-# we need --hook-dir=./hooks/merged-usr because usrmerge does not understand
-# DPKG_ROOT
-#
 # dpkg is unable to install architecture arch:all packages with a
 # dependency on an arch:any package (perl-modules-5.34 in this case)
 # inside foreign architecture chrootless chroots, because dpkg will use
@@ -38,12 +35,12 @@ for INCLUDE in '' 'apt' 'systemd-sysv'; do
   echo 1 >"/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/qemu-$(deb2qemu "$arch")"
   arch-test "$arch"
   {{ CMD }} --mode=root --architecture="$arch" --variant={{ VARIANT }} \
-    --hook-dir=./hooks/merged-usr ${INCLUDE:+--include="$INCLUDE"} \
+    ${INCLUDE:+--include="$INCLUDE"} \
     {{ DIST }} "/tmp/root.tar" {{ MIRROR }}
   echo 0 >"/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/qemu-$(deb2qemu "$arch")"
   arch-test "$arch" && exit 1
   {{ CMD }} --mode=chrootless --architecture="$arch" --variant={{ VARIANT }} \
-    --hook-dir=./hooks/merged-usr ${INCLUDE:+--include="$INCLUDE"} \
+    ${INCLUDE:+--include="$INCLUDE"} \
     --skip=check/chrootless {{ DIST }} "/tmp/chrootless.tar" {{ MIRROR }}
   # when creating a foreign architecture chroot, the tarballs are not
   # bit-by-bit identical but contain a few remaining differences: