diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1f3e7dced..fbe1f4ef7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -79,7 +79,6 @@ Packaging for your favorite distribution would be a welcome contribution!
 * pkg-config
 * libunbound `>=1.4.16` (note: Unbound is not a dependency, libunbound is)
 * libevent `>=2.0`
-* libgtest `>=1.5`
 * Boost `>=1.58`
 * BerkeleyDB `>=4.8` (note: on Ubuntu this means installing libdb-dev and libdb++-dev)
 * libunwind (optional, for stack trace on exception)
@@ -87,6 +86,7 @@ Packaging for your favorite distribution would be a welcome contribution!
 * ldns `>=1.6.17` (optional, for statically-linked binaries)
 * expat `>=1.1` (optional, for statically-linked binaries)
 * bison or yacc (optional, for statically-linked binaries)
+* GTest `>=1.5` (optional, for running test suite) (NOTE: `libgtest-dev` package in Ubuntu ships without binaries and requires a manual build; `gtest` on Arch includes binaries)
 * Doxygen (optional, for generating documentation)
 * graphviz (optional, for generating documentation)
 
diff --git a/tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
index 9f546590c..33d6c233d 100644
--- a/tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -42,21 +42,22 @@ find_package(GTest)
 if (GTest_FOUND)
   include_directories(SYSTEM ${GTEST_INCLUDE_DIRS})
 else ()
+  message(STATUS "GTest not found on the system: will use GTest bundled with this source")
   add_subdirectory(gtest)
   include_directories(SYSTEM "${gtest_SOURCE_DIR}/include" "${gtest_SOURCE_DIR}")
 
   # Emulate the FindGTest module's variable.
-  set(GTEST_MAIN_LIBRARIES gtest_main)
+  set(GTEST_LIBRARIES gtest)
 
   # Ignore some warnings when building gtest binaries.
   if(NOT MSVC)
-    set_property(TARGET gtest gtest_main
+    set_property(TARGET gtest
       APPEND_STRING
       PROPERTY
         COMPILE_FLAGS " -Wno-undef -Wno-sign-compare")
   endif()
 
-  set_property(TARGET gtest gtest_main
+  set_property(TARGET gtest
       PROPERTY
         FOLDER "${folder}")
 endif ()
diff --git a/tests/daemon_tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/daemon_tests/CMakeLists.txt
index 25ca09ce4..ae11ab5d5 100644
--- a/tests/daemon_tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/daemon_tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ target_link_libraries(transfers
     crypto
     common
     epee
-    ${GTEST_MAIN_LIBRARIES}
+    ${GTEST_LIBRARIES}
     ${Boost_LIBRARIES})
 
 file(MAKE_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/test_transfers")
diff --git a/tests/libwallet_api_tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/libwallet_api_tests/CMakeLists.txt
index e60947084..416192cce 100644
--- a/tests/libwallet_api_tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/libwallet_api_tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ add_executable(libwallet_api_tests
 target_link_libraries(libwallet_api_tests
   LINK_PRIVATE
     wallet
-    ${GTEST_MAIN_LIBRARIES}
+    ${GTEST_LIBRARIES}
     ${EXTRA_LIBRARIES})
 
 set_property(TARGET libwallet_api_tests
diff --git a/tests/net_load_tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/net_load_tests/CMakeLists.txt
index c3a68d18d..2c97acf51 100644
--- a/tests/net_load_tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/net_load_tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ target_link_libraries(net_load_tests_clt
 	otshell_utils
 	p2p
 	cryptonote_core
-    ${GTEST_MAIN_LIBRARIES}
+    ${GTEST_LIBRARIES}
     ${Boost_CHRONO_LIBRARY}
     ${Boost_DATE_TIME_LIBRARY}
     ${Boost_FILESYSTEM_LIBRARY}
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ target_link_libraries(net_load_tests_srv
 	otshell_utils
 	p2p
 	cryptonote_core
-    ${GTEST_MAIN_LIBRARIES}
+    ${GTEST_LIBRARIES}
     ${Boost_CHRONO_LIBRARY}
     ${Boost_DATE_TIME_LIBRARY}
     ${Boost_FILESYSTEM_LIBRARY}
diff --git a/tests/unit_tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/unit_tests/CMakeLists.txt
index 3d42809e3..d36c2748c 100644
--- a/tests/unit_tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/unit_tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ target_link_libraries(unit_tests
     rpc
     wallet
     p2p
-    ${GTEST_MAIN_LIBRARIES}
+    ${GTEST_LIBRARIES}
     ${Boost_CHRONO_LIBRARY}
     ${Boost_REGEX_LIBRARY}
     ${Boost_SYSTEM_LIBRARY}