diff --git a/src/runtime/Makefile b/src/runtime/Makefile
index 6263910d43..768f76a691 100644
--- a/src/runtime/Makefile
+++ b/src/runtime/Makefile
@@ -239,6 +239,7 @@ ifneq (,$(QEMUCMD))
     # qemu-specific options (all should be suffixed by "_QEMU")
     DEFBLOCKSTORAGEDRIVER_QEMU := virtio-scsi
     DEFNETWORKMODEL_QEMU := tcfilter
+    KERNELTYPE = uncompressed
     KERNELNAME = $(call MAKE_KERNEL_NAME,$(KERNELTYPE))
     KERNELPATH = $(KERNELDIR)/$(KERNELNAME)
 endif