diff --git a/.cirrus-ci/pkg-install.sh b/.cirrus-ci/pkg-install.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..ef83e5284078
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.cirrus-ci/pkg-install.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+set -e
+
+pkg install -y "$@" && exit 0
+
+cat <<EOF
+pkg install failed
+
+dmesg tail:
+$(dmesg | tail)
+
+trying again
+EOF
+
+pkg install -y "$@"
diff --git a/.cirrus.yml b/.cirrus.yml
index 2cc2243162ac..823d8bc2e1b0 100644
--- a/.cirrus.yml
+++ b/.cirrus.yml
@@ -1,35 +1,35 @@
 # $FreeBSD$
 
 compute_engine_instance:
   # Image list available via
   # gcloud compute images list --project freebsd-org-cloud-dev --no-standard-images
   platform: freebsd
   image_project: freebsd-org-cloud-dev
   image: freebsd-13-0-release-amd64
   cpu: 8
   memory: 24G
   disk: 40
 
 env:
   CIRRUS_CLONE_DEPTH: 1
 
 task:
   name: World and kernel amd64 build and boot smoke test
   timeout_in: 120m
   install_script:
-  - pkg install -y qemu uefi-edk2-qemu-x86_64 llvm12
+  - sh .cirrus-ci/pkg-install.sh qemu uefi-edk2-qemu-x86_64 llvm12
   setup_script:
   - uname -a
   - df -m
   - pw useradd user
   - mkdir -p /usr/obj/$(pwd -P)
   - chown user:user /usr/obj/$(pwd -P)
   script:
   - su user -c "make -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu) CROSS_TOOLCHAIN=llvm12 WITHOUT_TOOLCHAIN=yes buildworld buildkernel"
   package_script:
   - su user -c "make CROSS_TOOLCHAIN=llvm12 WITHOUT_TOOLCHAIN=yes PKG_FORMAT=tar packages"
   test_script:
   - sh tools/boot/ci-qemu-test.sh
   post_script:
   - df -m
   - du -m -s /usr/obj