diff --git a/tests/pytests/unit/grains/test_core.py b/tests/pytests/unit/grains/test_core.py
index 1f88e296f501..497cc3d0c4f6 100644
--- a/tests/pytests/unit/grains/test_core.py
+++ b/tests/pytests/unit/grains/test_core.py
@@ -3298,6 +3298,7 @@ def test_linux_proc_files_with_non_utf8_chars():
     _salt_utils_files_fopen = salt.utils.files.fopen
 
     empty_mock = MagicMock(return_value={})
+    os_release_mock = {"NAME": "Linux", "ID": "linux", "PRETTY_NAME": "Linux"}
 
     with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tempdir:
 
@@ -3322,7 +3323,7 @@ def _mock_open(filename, *args, **kwargs):
         ), patch.object(
             core, "_parse_lsb_release", return_value=empty_mock
         ), patch.object(
-            core, "_freedesktop_os_release", return_value=empty_mock
+            core, "_freedesktop_os_release", return_value=os_release_mock
         ), patch.object(
             core, "_hw_data", return_value=empty_mock
         ), patch.object(