diff --git a/virtcontainers/qemu.go b/virtcontainers/qemu.go
index 649442760..ad0f6e1e0 100644
--- a/virtcontainers/qemu.go
+++ b/virtcontainers/qemu.go
@@ -85,7 +85,6 @@ var qemuMinorVersion int
 // agnostic list of kernel parameters
 var defaultKernelParameters = []Param{
 	{"panic", "1"},
-	{"initcall_debug", ""},
 }
 
 type operation int
diff --git a/virtcontainers/qemu_test.go b/virtcontainers/qemu_test.go
index 2d6d82155..0edfd3514 100644
--- a/virtcontainers/qemu_test.go
+++ b/virtcontainers/qemu_test.go
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ func testQemuKernelParameters(t *testing.T, kernelParams []Param, expected strin
 }
 
 func TestQemuKernelParameters(t *testing.T) {
-	expectedOut := fmt.Sprintf("panic=1 initcall_debug nr_cpus=%d foo=foo bar=bar", MaxQemuVCPUs())
+	expectedOut := fmt.Sprintf("panic=1 nr_cpus=%d foo=foo bar=bar", MaxQemuVCPUs())
 	params := []Param{
 		{
 			Key:   "foo",