diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index badd546c5660831e1c31acf3e0f700874964b5e0..e2fefb09d4eed58ccd7f5fb8e2e05b33813eee29 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -55,3 +55,16 @@ make -C gnucxx11_opt/ -j
 The `configure.sh` file loads all the environment modules that are required to build the COBALT software. It also applies the following workarounds:
 1) The libraries of the host compiler (GCC 12) need to be added to the `LIBRARY_PATH`.
 2) `tParset` is broken, disable it in the build.
+
+## Notes: futher patches needed to run tests
+The following patches are needed to get the COBALT tests and code to run on the COBALT cluster:
+1) The path to libnvrtc-builtins.so (provided by Spack) needs to be added to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Not doing so raises the error NVRTC_ERROR_BUILTIN_OPERATION_FAILURE.
+2) The casacore measures need to be installed:
+```bash
+wget ftp://ftp.astron.nl:21/outgoing/Measures/WSRT_Measures.ztar
+tar xfz WSRT_Measures.ztar
+mkdir ~/measures
+mv geodetic ephemerides ~/measures
+echo 'measures.directory: $HOME/measures' > ~/.casarc
+```
+3) make sure `ssh localhost` works without password
diff --git a/configure.sh b/configure.sh
index e92b805575da442b94940edaa4b63e651f6bc7e0..b618a0d2fa64a3460c89d9e2a8ee18f3ddeb58a3 100644
--- a/configure.sh
+++ b/configure.sh
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ module load python
 module load numactl
 module load unittest-cpp
 module load hdf5
+module load py-lxml
 
 # tParset is broken, disable it
 sed -i '/lofar_add_test(tParset/s/^/#/' CoInterface/test/CMakeLists.txt
diff --git a/environment.yaml b/environment.yaml
index f804bc218060680a28440fca37e15ce5518650d2..d2e58b86f89f91829948a0d9365001c1967f3771 100644
--- a/environment.yaml
+++ b/environment.yaml
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ spack:
   - log4cplus
   - py-kombu
   - py-casacore
+  - py-lxml
   - readline
   - ncurses
   - postgresql