diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/runtime/cases/ssh.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/runtime/cases/ssh.py
index cdbef59500..ae92bb34cd 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oeqa/runtime/cases/ssh.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/runtime/cases/ssh.py
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
 #
 
+import time
+
 from oeqa.runtime.case import OERuntimeTestCase
 from oeqa.core.decorator.depends import OETestDepends
 from oeqa.runtime.decorator.package import OEHasPackage
@@ -13,12 +15,20 @@ class SSHTest(OERuntimeTestCase):
     @OETestDepends(['ping.PingTest.test_ping'])
     @OEHasPackage(['dropbear', 'openssh-sshd'])
     def test_ssh(self):
-        (status, output) = self.target.run('sleep 20', timeout=2)
-        msg='run() timed out but return code was zero.'
-        self.assertNotEqual(status, 0, msg=msg)
-        (status, output) = self.target.run('uname -a')
-        self.assertEqual(status, 0, msg='SSH Test failed: %s' % output)
-        (status, output) = self.target.run('cat /etc/controllerimage')
-        msg = "This isn't the right image  - /etc/controllerimage " \
-              "shouldn't be here %s" % output
-        self.assertEqual(status, 1, msg=msg)
+        for i in range(5):
+          status, output = self.target.run("uname -a", timeout=5)
+          if status == 0:
+              break
+          elif status == 255:
+              # ssh returns 255 only if a ssh error occurs.  This could
+              # be an issue with "Connection refused" because the port
+              # isn't open yet, and this could check explicitly for that
+              # here.  However, let's keep it simple and just retry for
+              # all errors a limited amount of times with a sleep to
+              # give it time for the port to open.
+              time.sleep(5)
+              continue
+          else:
+              self.fail("uname failed with \"%s\"" %output)
+        if status == 255:
+            self.fail("ssh error %s" %output)