diff --git a/test/common/autotest_common.sh b/test/common/autotest_common.sh
index f4440e01c..07480a235 100755
--- a/test/common/autotest_common.sh
+++ b/test/common/autotest_common.sh
@@ -251,6 +251,9 @@ export AR_TOOL=$rootdir/scripts/ar-xnvme-fixer
 # pass our valgrind desire on to unittest.sh
 if [ $SPDK_RUN_VALGRIND -eq 0 ]; then
 	export valgrind=''
+else
+	# unset all DEBUGINFOD_* vars that may affect our valgrind instance
+	unset -v "${!DEBUGINFOD_@}"
 fi
 
 if [ "$(uname -s)" = "Linux" ]; then
diff --git a/test/unit/unittest.sh b/test/unit/unittest.sh
index 9609b24f0..ed7609308 100755
--- a/test/unit/unittest.sh
+++ b/test/unit/unittest.sh
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ fi
 # the env variable to override the default shown below.
 if [ -z ${valgrind+x} ]; then
 	if grep -q '#undef SPDK_CONFIG_ASAN' $rootdir/include/spdk/config.h && hash valgrind; then
-		valgrind='valgrind --leak-check=full --error-exitcode=2'
+		valgrind='valgrind --leak-check=full --error-exitcode=2 --verbose'
 	else
 		valgrind=''
 	fi