diff --git a/test-distro/Cargo.toml b/test-distro/Cargo.toml
index 3623cee5..5ec27d2f 100644
--- a/test-distro/Cargo.toml
+++ b/test-distro/Cargo.toml
@@ -35,4 +35,4 @@ nix = { workspace = true, features = [
 ] }
 object = { workspace = true, features = ["elf", "read_core", "std"] }
 walkdir = { workspace = true }
-xz2 = { workspace = true }
+xz2 = { workspace = true, optional = true } # Optional to allow building without a cross toolchain.
diff --git a/test-distro/src/lib.rs b/test-distro/src/lib.rs
index c18b2beb..77a9b299 100644
--- a/test-distro/src/lib.rs
+++ b/test-distro/src/lib.rs
@@ -37,17 +37,25 @@ pub fn read_to_end(path: &std::path::Path, compressed: bool) -> anyhow::Result<V
     let mut contents = Vec::new();
 
     if compressed {
-        let stat = f.metadata().context("metadata()")?;
-        #[expect(clippy::manual_ok_err)]
-        let len = match usize::try_from(stat.len()) {
-            Ok(len) => Some(len),
-            Err(std::num::TryFromIntError { .. }) => None,
+        #[cfg(feature = "xz2")]
+        {
+            let stat = f.metadata().context("metadata()")?;
+            #[expect(clippy::manual_ok_err)]
+            let len = match usize::try_from(stat.len()) {
+                Ok(len) => Some(len),
+                Err(std::num::TryFromIntError { .. }) => None,
+            }
+            .and_then(|len| len.checked_mul(2))
+            .ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("2 * {stat:?}.len() is too large to fit in a usize"))?;
+            contents.reserve(len);
+
+            xz2::read::XzDecoder::new(f).read_to_end(&mut contents)
         }
-        .and_then(|len| len.checked_mul(2))
-        .ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("2 * {stat:?}.len() is too large to fit in a usize"))?;
-        contents.reserve(len);
 
-        xz2::read::XzDecoder::new(f).read_to_end(&mut contents)
+        #[cfg(not(feature = "xz2"))]
+        {
+            anyhow::bail!("cannot read {} without xz2 feature", path.display());
+        }
     } else {
         f.read_to_end(&mut contents)
     }
diff --git a/xtask/src/run.rs b/xtask/src/run.rs
index 0cf1738d..187828f9 100644
--- a/xtask/src/run.rs
+++ b/xtask/src/run.rs
@@ -338,10 +338,11 @@ pub fn run(opts: Options) -> Result<()> {
 
                 let target = format!("{guest_arch}-unknown-linux-musl");
 
-                let test_distro: Vec<(String, PathBuf)> = build(Some(&target), |cmd| {
-                    cmd.args(["--package", "test-distro", "--profile", "release"])
-                })
-                .context("building test-distro package failed")?;
+                let test_distro_args =
+                    ["--package", "test-distro", "--release", "--features", "xz2"];
+                let test_distro: Vec<(String, PathBuf)> =
+                    build(Some(&target), |cmd| cmd.args(test_distro_args))
+                        .context("building test-distro package failed")?;
 
                 let binaries = binaries(Some(&target))?;
 
@@ -415,16 +416,9 @@ pub fn run(opts: Options) -> Result<()> {
                 // Preparing the `modules.alias` file inside the VM as part of
                 // `/init` is slow. It's faster to prepare it here.
                 Command::new("cargo")
-                    .args([
-                        "run",
-                        "--package",
-                        "test-distro",
-                        "--bin",
-                        "depmod",
-                        "--release",
-                        "--",
-                        "-b",
-                    ])
+                    .arg("run")
+                    .args(test_distro_args)
+                    .args(["--bin", "depmod", "--", "-b"])
                     .arg(&modules_dir)
                     .status()
                     .context("failed to run depmod")?;