diff --git a/mysql-test/suite/sphinx/my.cnf b/mysql-test/suite/sphinx/my.cnf
index 78e5cad6894..ba5dd7578e8 100644
--- a/mysql-test/suite/sphinx/my.cnf
+++ b/mysql-test/suite/sphinx/my.cnf
@@ -1,8 +1,5 @@
 !include include/default_my.cnf
 
-[mysqld.1]
-plugin-load=@ENV.HA_SPHINX_SO
-
 [source src1]
 type = xmlpipe2
 xmlpipe_command = cat suite/sphinx/testdata.xml
diff --git a/mysql-test/suite/sphinx/suite.opt b/mysql-test/suite/sphinx/suite.opt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b8964ecd9e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mysql-test/suite/sphinx/suite.opt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+--plugin-load=$HA_SPHINX_SO
diff --git a/mysql-test/suite/sphinx/suite.pm b/mysql-test/suite/sphinx/suite.pm
index ee5c3941b63..199e59e26d7 100644
--- a/mysql-test/suite/sphinx/suite.pm
+++ b/mysql-test/suite/sphinx/suite.pm
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ my $exe_sphinx_indexer = &locate_sphinx_binary('indexer');
 my $exe_sphinx_searchd = &locate_sphinx_binary('searchd');
 
 return "No Sphinx" unless $exe_sphinx_indexer and $exe_sphinx_searchd;
-return "No SphinxSE" unless $ENV{HA_SPHINX_SO};
+return "No SphinxSE" unless $ENV{HA_SPHINX_SO} or
+                            $::mysqld_variables{'sphinx'} eq "ON";
 
 {
   local $_ = `"$exe_sphinx_searchd" --help`;