diff --git a/pkg/testutils/lint/lint_test.go b/pkg/testutils/lint/lint_test.go
index 58df525be308..ee6450fe6aa3 100644
--- a/pkg/testutils/lint/lint_test.go
+++ b/pkg/testutils/lint/lint_test.go
@@ -1629,12 +1629,19 @@ func TestLint(t *testing.T) {
 			pkgs, err := packages.Load(
 				&packages.Config{
 					Mode: packages.NeedImports | packages.NeedName,
+					Dir:  crdbDir,
 				},
 				pkgPath,
 			)
 			if err != nil {
 				return errors.Wrapf(err, "error loading package %s", pkgPath)
 			}
+			// NB: if no packages were found, this API confusingly
+			// returns no error, so we need to explicitly check that
+			// something was returned.
+			if len(pkgs) == 0 {
+				return errors.Newf("could not list packages under %s", pkgPath)
+			}
 			for _, pkg := range pkgs {
 				for _, s := range pkg.Imports {
 					arg.Out <- pkg.PkgPath + ": " + s.PkgPath
@@ -1666,6 +1673,7 @@ func TestLint(t *testing.T) {
 			stream.GrepNot(`cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/kv/kvpb/gen: log$`),
 			stream.GrepNot(`cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/util/log/gen: log$`),
 			stream.GrepNot(`cockroach/pkg/util/uuid: github\.com/satori/go\.uuid$`),
+			stream.GrepNot(`github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/workload/debug: log$`),
 		), func(s string) {
 			pkgStr := strings.Split(s, ": ")
 			importingPkg, importedPkg := pkgStr[0], pkgStr[1]