diff --git a/bin/disk-image-create b/bin/disk-image-create
index baf607406..5973ebe43 100755
--- a/bin/disk-image-create
+++ b/bin/disk-image-create
@@ -331,6 +331,7 @@ if [ -n "$DIB_IMAGE_SIZE" ]; then
     du_size=$(echo "$DIB_IMAGE_SIZE" | awk '{printf("%d\n",$1 * 1024 *1024)}')
 else
     set +o xtrace
+    echo "Calculating image size (this may take a minute)..."
     du_output=$(sudo du -a -c -x ${TMP_BUILD_DIR}/built)
     # the last line is the total size from "-c".
     # scale this by 0.6 to create a slightly bigger image
@@ -345,25 +346,27 @@ if [[ "${DIB_SHOW_IMAGE_USAGE:-0}" != 0 ]]; then
         du_output=$(sudo du -a -c -x ${TMP_BUILD_DIR}/built)
     fi
 
+    du_output_show="sort -nr |
+                     numfmt --to=iec-i --padding=7
+                       --suffix=B --field=1 --from-unit=1024"
+
     # by default show the 10MiB and greater files & directories -- a
     # dir with lots of little files will still show up, but this helps
     # signal:noise ratio
     if [[ ${DIB_SHOW_IMAGE_USAGE_FULL:-0} == 0 ]]; then
         # numfmt will start giving a decimal place when < 10MiB
-        du_output_limit="| egrep 'MiB|GiB|TiB|PiB' | grep -v '\..MiB'"
+        du_output_show+="| egrep 'MiB|GiB|TiB|PiB' | grep -v '\..MiB'"
         echo "================================="
         echo "Image size report (files > 10MiB)"
         echo "================================="
     else
-        du_output_limit=""
         echo "================="
         echo "Image size report"
         echo "================="
     fi
 
-    echo "$du_output" | sort -nr | \
-        numfmt --to=iec-i --padding=7 --suffix=B --field=1 --from-unit=1024 \
-               $du_output_limit
+    eval ${du_output_show} <<< "$du_output"
+
     echo
     echo "===== end image size report ====="
     echo
diff --git a/tests/run_functests.sh b/tests/run_functests.sh
index 2e3f00691..6eb272603 100755
--- a/tests/run_functests.sh
+++ b/tests/run_functests.sh
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ function run_disk_element_test() {
 
     if break="after-error" break_outside_target=1 \
         break_cmd="cp \$TMP_MOUNT_PATH/tmp/dib-test-should-fail /tmp/ 2>&1 > /dev/null || true" \
+        DIB_SHOW_IMAGE_USAGE=1 \
         ELEMENTS_PATH=$DIB_ELEMENTS:$DIB_ELEMENTS/$element/test-elements \
         $DIB_CMD -x -t tar,qcow2 -o $dest_dir/image -n $element $test_element; then