diff --git a/src/cmd-supermin-run b/src/cmd-supermin-run
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..dfcf2e0493
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cmd-supermin-run
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+dn=$(dirname "$0")
+# shellcheck source=src/cmdlib.sh
+. "${dn}"/cmdlib.sh
+
+print_help() {
+    echo "Usage: cosa supermin-run [--cache|--snapshot] COMMAND [ARG...]" >&2
+}
+
+if [ $# = 0 ]; then
+    print_help
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+need_cache_dir=0
+case "$1" in
+    --cache)
+        shift
+        set -- runvm_with_cache -- "$@"
+        need_cache_dir=1
+        ;;
+    --snapshot)
+        shift
+        set -- runvm_with_cache_snapshot on -- "$@"
+        need_cache_dir=1
+        ;;
+    --*)
+        echo "unrecognized option: $1"
+        print_help
+        exit 1
+        ;;
+    *)
+        set -- runvm -- "$@"
+        ;;
+esac
+
+# force caller to create tmp/ and possibly cache/ rather than surprisingly
+# auto-create them
+if [ ! -d tmp ]; then
+    echo 'Need tmp/ dir for supermin to work' >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+if [ $need_cache_dir = 1 ] && [ ! -d cache ]; then
+    echo 'Need cache/ dir for caching' >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+workdir=$(pwd)
+export workdir
+
+"$@"
diff --git a/src/cmdlib.sh b/src/cmdlib.sh
index 44c69a1d17..c832498b30 100755
--- a/src/cmdlib.sh
+++ b/src/cmdlib.sh
@@ -809,7 +809,7 @@ EOF
         if ! "${kola_args[@]}" -- "${base_qemu_args[@]}" \
             -device virtserialport,chardev=virtioserial0,name=cosa-cmdout \
             -chardev stdio,id=virtioserial0 \
-            "${qemu_args[@]}" <&-; then # the <&- here closes stdin otherwise qemu waits forever
+            "${qemu_args[@]}" < /dev/zero; then # qemu hangs if it has nothing to read on stdin
                 cat "${runvm_console}"
                 fatal "Failed to run 'kola qemuexec'"
         fi
diff --git a/src/secex-genprotimgvm-scripts/runvm.sh b/src/secex-genprotimgvm-scripts/runvm.sh
index c90a2c604d..a5361a1021 100644
--- a/src/secex-genprotimgvm-scripts/runvm.sh
+++ b/src/secex-genprotimgvm-scripts/runvm.sh
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ else
 fi
 
 if ! "${kola_args[@]}" -- "${base_qemu_args[@]}" \
-    "${qemu_args[@]}" <&-; then # the <&- here closes stdin otherwise qemu waits forever
+    "${qemu_args[@]}" < /dev/zero; then # qemu hangs if it has nothing to read on stdin
     cat "${runvm_console}"
     echo "Failed to run 'kola qemuexec'"
     exit 1
diff --git a/src/supermin-init-prelude.sh b/src/supermin-init-prelude.sh
index 8cf8150d50..0e4b0874da 100644
--- a/src/supermin-init-prelude.sh
+++ b/src/supermin-init-prelude.sh
@@ -47,7 +47,6 @@ for maybe_symlink in "${workdir}"/{src/config,src/yumrepos}; do
     fi
 done
 
-mkdir -p "${workdir}"/cache
 cachedev=$(blkid -lt LABEL=cosa-cache -o device || true)
 if [ -n "${cachedev}" ]; then
     mount "${cachedev}" "${workdir}"/cache