diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -25,7 +25,9 @@
 
 #### Non Debian-like host
 
-The tests expects `/usr/sbin/cassandra` to exist.
+The tests expects the binary `cassandra` to exist somewhere. You must specify a
+non-conventional full path in the environment variable `BIN_CASSANDRA`. If not
+provided, this defaults to look it up at `/usr/sbin/cassandra`.
 
 Optionally, you can avoid running the cassandra tests.
 
diff --git a/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py b/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py
--- a/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py
+++ b/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py
@@ -100,9 +100,11 @@
         stdout = stderr = None
     else:
         stdout = stderr = subprocess.DEVNULL
+
+    bin_cassandra = os.environ.get("BIN_CASSANDRA", "/usr/sbin/cassandra")
     proc = subprocess.Popen(
         [
-            "/usr/sbin/cassandra",
+            bin_cassandra,
             "-Dcassandra.config=file://%s/cassandra.yaml" % cassandra_conf,
             "-Dcassandra.logdir=%s" % cassandra_log,
             "-Dcassandra.jmx.local.port=%d" % jmx_port,
@@ -124,8 +126,10 @@
         yield (["127.0.0.1"], native_transport_port)
 
     if not running or os.environ.get("LOG_CASSANDRA"):
-        with open(str(cassandra_log.join("debug.log"))) as fd:
-            print(fd.read())
+        debug_log_path = str(cassandra_log.join("debug.log"))
+        if os.path.exists(debug_log_path):
+            with open(debug_log_path) as fd:
+                print(fd.read())
 
     if not running:
         raise Exception("cassandra process stopped unexpectedly.")
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
   pytest-cov
   dev: ipdb
 passenv =
+  BIN_CASSANDRA
   LOG_CASSANDRA
 commands =
   pytest \