> Can't we try to increase the timeout step by step? Eg. 5 sec => 10 sec, > then 15 sec, etc. until the buildbots turn green?

I think you'd need an increase of an order of magnitude or two (possibly more) in some cases to make this work:  notice that the failure message from the itimer_virtual test gives an indication of how much virtual time *has* actually passed, and in some cases it's none at all (to within the timer resolution).

Also, this doesn't seem like a very future-proof solution.

Reducing the time intervals (0.2, 0.3, ...) probably isn't much of an option either:  I'd expect difficulties with timer resolution.