diff --git a/build/pkgs/cvxopt/dependencies b/build/pkgs/cvxopt/dependencies
index 8930227ba65..2354fdb1c1e 100644
--- a/build/pkgs/cvxopt/dependencies
+++ b/build/pkgs/cvxopt/dependencies
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-$(PYTHON) numpy $(BLAS) gsl glpk suitesparse | $(PYTHON_TOOLCHAIN) pkgconfig nose matplotlib
+$(PYTHON) numpy $(BLAS) gsl glpk suitesparse | $(PYTHON_TOOLCHAIN) pkgconfig matplotlib $(and $(filter-out no,$(SAGE_CHECK_cvxopt)), pytest)
 
 matplotlib is needed to test cvxopt (i.e., if SAGE_CHECK=yes). See #12742.
 
diff --git a/build/pkgs/cvxopt/spkg-check.in b/build/pkgs/cvxopt/spkg-check.in
index e251b2cbb6f..8b3f5031762 100644
--- a/build/pkgs/cvxopt/spkg-check.in
+++ b/build/pkgs/cvxopt/spkg-check.in
@@ -1,8 +1,3 @@
 cd src
 
-if ! command -v nosetests ; then 
-    echo >&2 'Testing cvxopt requires the package nose to be installed'
-    exit 1
-fi
-
-nosetests
+pytest