diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/trusty-build-succeeds/README.rst b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/trusty-build-succeeds/README.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..203bd8d75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/trusty-build-succeeds/README.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Verify we can build a ubuntu image.
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/trusty-build-succeeds/element-deps b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/trusty-build-succeeds/element-deps
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5d58b59ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/trusty-build-succeeds/element-deps
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+openstack-ci-mirrors
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/trusty-build-succeeds/environment.d/10-set-distro.bash b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/trusty-build-succeeds/environment.d/10-set-distro.bash
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..02d902a4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/trusty-build-succeeds/environment.d/10-set-distro.bash
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+export DIB_RELEASE=trusty
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/README.rst b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/README.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..35bdfee4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/README.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+Verify we can build a ubuntu image.
+
+Note this test includes the vm element to test the bootloader install,
+and specifies to output a .qcow2
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/element-deps b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/element-deps
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4be9e9fea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/element-deps
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+openstack-ci-mirrors
+vm
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/environment.d/10-set-distro.bash b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/environment.d/10-set-distro.bash
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7cc2c8877
--- /dev/null
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/environment.d/10-set-distro.bash
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+export DIB_RELEASE=xenial
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/test-output-formats b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/test-output-formats
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c780936b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/ubuntu/test-elements/xenial-build-succeeds/test-output-formats
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+tar,qcow2
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/run_functests.sh b/tests/run_functests.sh
index 5af62c21e..0748d2ac9 100755
--- a/tests/run_functests.sh
+++ b/tests/run_functests.sh
@@ -26,26 +26,35 @@ export LC_ALL=
 #  tests are not run by "tox -e func" in the gate.
 #
 DEFAULT_SKIP_TESTS=(
-    # we run version pinned test in gate (this just runs latest)
-    fedora/build-succeeds
+    ##  These are part of the "extras-nv" job
     # These require "zypper" on the host which is not available on
     # all platforms
     opensuse-minimal/build-succeeds
     opensuse-minimal/opensuse423-build-succeeds
-    # in non-voting
+    # non-voting; not used by infra currently
     gentoo/build-succeeds
-    opensuse/build-succeeds
-    opensuse/opensuse423-build-succeeds
-    # good to have the test case around - but because of changes
-    # in testing does not work always.
-    debian-minimal/testing-build-succeeds
-    # No longer reasonable to test upstream (lacks a mirror in infra)
-    # note this is centos6
-    centos/build-succeeds
-    # Needs infra mirroring to be stable
+    # Needs infra mirroring to move to voting job
     debian-minimal/stable-build-succeeds
     debian-minimal/stable-vm
+    ##
+
+    # These download base images which has shown to be very unreliable
+    # in the gate.  Keep them in a -nv job until we can figure out
+    # better caching for the images
+    opensuse/build-succeeds
+    opensuse/opensuse423-build-succeeds
+    centos7/build-succeeds
     debian/build-succeeds
+    fedora/build-succeeds
+    ubuntu/trusty-build-succeeds
+    ubuntu/xenial-build-succeeds
+
+    # No longer reasonable to test upstream (lacks a mirror in infra)
+    # Note this is centos6 and should probably be removed
+    centos/build-succeeds
+
+    # This job is a bit unreliable, even if we get mirroring
+    debian-minimal/testing-build-succeeds
 )
 
 # The default output formats (specified to disk-image-create's "-t"