diff --git a/src/launch-appliance.c b/src/launch-appliance.c
index 4f21db7ac..894ff75a9 100644
--- a/src/launch-appliance.c
+++ b/src/launch-appliance.c
@@ -427,14 +427,16 @@ launch_appliance (guestfs_h *g, const char *arg)
     add_cmdline (g, "stdio");
 #endif
 
-    /* Use sgabios instead of vgabios.  This means we'll see BIOS
-     * messages on the serial port, and also works around this bug
-     * in qemu 1.1.0:
-     * https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1021649
-     * QEmu has included sgabios upstream since just before 1.0.
-     */
-    add_cmdline (g, "-device");
-    add_cmdline (g, "sga");
+    if (qemu_supports_device (g, "Serial Graphics Adapter")) {
+      /* Use sgabios instead of vgabios.  This means we'll see BIOS
+       * messages on the serial port, and also works around this bug
+       * in qemu 1.1.0:
+       * https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1021649
+       * QEmu has included sgabios upstream since just before 1.0.
+       */
+      add_cmdline (g, "-device");
+      add_cmdline (g, "sga");
+    }
 
     /* Set up virtio-serial for the communications channel. */
     add_cmdline (g, "-chardev");