diff --git a/tests/vm/ubuntu.i386 b/tests/vm/ubuntu.i386
index 3ea459ee20..38f740eabf 100755
--- a/tests/vm/ubuntu.i386
+++ b/tests/vm/ubuntu.i386
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ class UbuntuX86VM(basevm.BaseVM):
                           "    ssh-authorized-keys:\n",
                           "    - %s\n" % basevm.SSH_PUB_KEY,
                           "locale: en_US.UTF-8\n"])
+        proxy = os.environ.get("http_proxy")
+        if not proxy is None:
+            udata.writelines(["apt:\n",
+                              "  proxy: %s" % proxy])
         udata.close()
         subprocess.check_call(["genisoimage", "-output", "cloud-init.iso",
                                "-volid", "cidata", "-joliet", "-rock",