diff --git a/src/launch.c b/src/launch.c
index 9262cc5c7..287cc4022 100644
--- a/src/launch.c
+++ b/src/launch.c
@@ -342,6 +342,9 @@ guestfs__launch (guestfs_h *g)
      */
     g->cmdline[0] = g->qemu;
 
+    if (qemu_supports (g, "-nodefconfig"))
+      add_cmdline (g, "-nodefconfig");
+
     /* qemu sometimes needs this option to enable hardware
      * virtualization, but some versions of 'qemu-kvm' will use KVM
      * regardless (even where this option appears in the help text).