diff --git a/tests/lasuite-drive/setup_custom_tests.sh b/tests/lasuite-drive/setup_custom_tests.sh
index 2b7623d..c1f62aa 100644
--- a/tests/lasuite-drive/setup_custom_tests.sh
+++ b/tests/lasuite-drive/setup_custom_tests.sh
@@ -37,9 +37,16 @@ echo "  lasuite-drive setup_custom_tests: wiring OIDC against keycloak dep ${KC_
 # (deterministic) rather than the README's finicky `abra app restart` (which it notes "will appear
 # to fail"). (DB `backend migrate` is the README's other documented step; not run here because
 # neither current test needs a migrated DB — add it when an upload-via-app test does.)
+#
+# `--detach` is REQUIRED: minio-createbuckets is a run-once job (restart_policy: none) that creates
+# the bucket then EXITS 0, so the service never holds a steady 1/1 replica. A blocking
+# `docker service scale ...=1` (the default) therefore waits forever for a convergence that can't
+# happen and hangs the whole run (`|| true` does NOT help — the command hangs, it doesn't fail).
+# With `--detach` the scale just submits the one-run and returns; the bucket-poll loop below
+# confirms the bucket was actually created.
 STACK=$(printf '%s' "$CCCI_APP_DOMAIN" | tr '.' '_')
 echo "  setup: creating MinIO bucket via the minio-createbuckets one-shot (scale 0->1)"
-docker service scale "${STACK}_minio-createbuckets=1" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+docker service scale --detach "${STACK}_minio-createbuckets=1" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
 # Wait up to 90s for the one-shot to create the bucket (mc mb drive/drive-media-storage; exit 0).
 # Poll by checking the bucket directly from the running minio replica container.
 for i in $(seq 1 30); do