diff --git a/src/runtime/virtcontainers/qemu_amd64.go b/src/runtime/virtcontainers/qemu_amd64.go
index d19bab5c5f..1129d4d340 100644
--- a/src/runtime/virtcontainers/qemu_amd64.go
+++ b/src/runtime/virtcontainers/qemu_amd64.go
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ const (
 
 	defaultQemuMachineType = QemuQ35
 
-	defaultQemuMachineOptions = "accel=kvm,kernel_irqchip"
+	defaultQemuMachineOptions = "accel=kvm,kernel_irqchip=on"
 
 	qmpMigrationWaitTimeout = 5 * time.Second