diff --git a/tests/hostside/helper/java/android/virt/test/VirtualizationTestCaseBase.java b/tests/hostside/helper/java/android/virt/test/VirtualizationTestCaseBase.java
index df3e247..440ae18 100644
--- a/tests/hostside/helper/java/android/virt/test/VirtualizationTestCaseBase.java
+++ b/tests/hostside/helper/java/android/virt/test/VirtualizationTestCaseBase.java
@@ -133,6 +133,19 @@
         return result.getStdout().trim();
     }
 
+    // Same as runOnMicrodroid, but keeps retrying on error till timeout
+    private static String runOnMicrodroidRetryingOnFailure(String... cmd) {
+        final long timeoutMs = 30000; // 30 sec. Microdroid is extremely slow on GCE-on-CF.
+        int attempts = (int) MICRODROID_ADB_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_MINUTES * 60 * 1000 / 500;
+        CommandResult result = RunUtil.getDefault()
+                .runTimedCmdRetry(timeoutMs, 500, attempts,
+                        "adb", "-s", MICRODROID_SERIAL, "shell", join(cmd));
+        if (result.getStatus() != CommandStatus.SUCCESS) {
+            fail(join(cmd) + " has failed: " + result);
+        }
+        return result.getStdout().trim();
+    }
+
     // Same as runOnMicrodroid, but returns null on error.
     public static String tryRunOnMicrodroid(String... cmd) {
         CommandResult result = runOnMicrodroidForResult(cmd);
@@ -332,13 +345,16 @@
 
     public static void rootMicrodroid() {
         runOnHost("adb", "-s", MICRODROID_SERIAL, "root");
-
         runOnHostWithTimeout(
                 MICRODROID_ADB_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_MINUTES * 60 * 1000,
                 "adb",
                 "-s",
                 MICRODROID_SERIAL,
                 "wait-for-device");
+        // There have been tests when adb wait-for-device succeeded but the following command
+        // fails with error: closed. Hence, we run adb shell true in microdroid with retries
+        // before returning.
+        runOnMicrodroidRetryingOnFailure("true");
     }
 
     // Establish an adb connection to microdroid by letting Android forward the connection to