diff --git a/contrib/cirrus/setup_environment.sh b/contrib/cirrus/setup_environment.sh
index 04442cc2a701..eb5510abee92 100755
--- a/contrib/cirrus/setup_environment.sh
+++ b/contrib/cirrus/setup_environment.sh
@@ -54,6 +54,10 @@ if [[ "$CI_DESIRED_STORAGE" = "composefs" ]]; then
     if [[ "$PRIV_NAME" == "root" ]]; then
         CI_DESIRED_COMPOSEFS="+composefs"
 
+        # artifacts restored from a tarball won't be stored correctly
+        # in composefs, so we need to disable this feature for now.
+        export NO_SAVE_TEST_CACHE_FILES=true
+
         # KLUDGE ALERT! Magic options needed for testing composefs.
         # This option was intended for passing one arg to --storage-opt
         # but we're hijacking it to pass an extra option+arg. And it
diff --git a/test/e2e/common_test.go b/test/e2e/common_test.go
index a3c9c72df4d5..100eb27ebc0a 100644
--- a/test/e2e/common_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/common_test.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"io/fs"
 	"math/rand"
 	"net"
 	"net/url"
@@ -401,27 +402,35 @@ func imageTarPath(image string) string {
 	return filepath.Join(cacheDir, imageCacheName)
 }
 
+func canUseArtifacts() bool {
+	return os.Getenv("NO_SAVE_TEST_CACHE_FILES") == "" && os.Getenv("CI_DESIRED_COMPOSEFS") == ""
+}
+
+func (p *PodmanTestIntegration) pullImage(image string) {
+	for try := 0; try < 3; try++ {
+		pull := p.PodmanNoCache([]string{"pull", image})
+		pull.Wait(440)
+		if pull.ExitCode() == 0 {
+			break
+		}
+		if try == 2 {
+			Expect(pull).Should(Exit(0), "Failed after many retries")
+		}
+
+		GinkgoWriter.Println("Will wait and retry")
+		time.Sleep(time.Duration(try+1) * 5 * time.Second)
+	}
+}
+
 // createArtifact creates a cached image tarball in a local directory
 func (p *PodmanTestIntegration) createArtifact(image string) {
-	if os.Getenv("NO_TEST_CACHE") != "" {
+	if os.Getenv("NO_TEST_CACHE") != "" || !canUseArtifacts() {
 		return
 	}
 	destName := imageTarPath(image)
-	if _, err := os.Stat(destName); os.IsNotExist(err) {
+	if _, err := os.Stat(destName); errors.Is(err, fs.ErrNotExist) {
 		GinkgoWriter.Printf("Caching %s at %s...\n", image, destName)
-		for try := 0; try < 3; try++ {
-			pull := p.PodmanNoCache([]string{"pull", image})
-			pull.Wait(440)
-			if pull.ExitCode() == 0 {
-				break
-			}
-			if try == 2 {
-				Expect(pull).Should(Exit(0), "Failed after many retries")
-			}
-
-			GinkgoWriter.Println("Will wait and retry")
-			time.Sleep(time.Duration(try+1) * 5 * time.Second)
-		}
+		p.pullImage(image)
 
 		save := p.PodmanNoCache([]string{"save", "-o", destName, image})
 		save.Wait(90)
@@ -1024,7 +1033,12 @@ func (p *PodmanTestIntegration) RestartRemoteService() {
 
 // RestoreArtifactToCache populates the imagecache from tarballs that were cached earlier
 func (p *PodmanTestIntegration) RestoreArtifactToCache(image string) error {
+	if !canUseArtifacts() {
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	tarball := imageTarPath(image)
+
 	if _, err := os.Stat(tarball); err == nil {
 		GinkgoWriter.Printf("Restoring %s...\n", image)
 		p.Root = p.ImageCacheDir
@@ -1037,8 +1051,12 @@ func (p *PodmanTestIntegration) RestoreArtifactToCache(image string) error {
 
 func populateCache(podman *PodmanTestIntegration) {
 	for _, image := range CACHE_IMAGES {
-		err := podman.RestoreArtifactToCache(image)
-		Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+		if canUseArtifacts() {
+			err := podman.RestoreArtifactToCache(image)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+		} else {
+			podman.pullImage(image)
+		}
 	}
 	// logformatter uses this to recognize the first test
 	GinkgoWriter.Printf("-----------------------------\n")