diff --git a/util/build-gnu.sh b/util/build-gnu.sh
index 5f851a9e2..4209b7710 100755
--- a/util/build-gnu.sh
+++ b/util/build-gnu.sh
@@ -198,6 +198,10 @@ sed -i "s|grep '^#define HAVE_CAP 1' \$CONFIG_HEADER > /dev/null|true|"  tests/l
 sed -i 's|touch |/usr/bin/touch |' tests/cp/reflink-perm.sh tests/ls/block-size.sh tests/mv/update.sh tests/ls/ls-time.sh tests/stat/stat-nanoseconds.sh tests/misc/time-style.sh tests/test/test-N.sh tests/ls/abmon-align.sh
 sed -i 's|ln -|/usr/bin/ln -|' tests/cp/link-deref.sh
 
+# our messages are better
+sed -i "s|cannot stat 'symlink': Permission denied|not writing through dangling symlink 'symlink'|" tests/cp/fail-perm.sh
+sed -i "s|cp: target directory 'symlink': Permission denied|cp: 'symlink' is not a directory|" tests/cp/fail-perm.sh
+
 # Workaround https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/issues/5766
 # to transform an ERROR into FAIL
 sed -i 's|xargs mkdir )|xargs mkdir -p )|' tests/cp/link-heap.sh