diff --git a/scripts/qemu.sh b/scripts/qemu.sh
index d4d4ed6d4..a04a45b77 100755
--- a/scripts/qemu.sh
+++ b/scripts/qemu.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-QEMU_IMAGE=mobylinux/qemu:156d2160c2ccf4d5118221bc2708f6c0981d54cc@sha256:e1345ba0400d6c45bf3bdf4f4ed425c3d7596d11e6553b83f17f5893dfc49f7b
+QEMU_IMAGE=mobylinux/qemu:2e63db70759e37de6f9cc5cdf67c15f3aa8373c8@sha256:958c6bb1fca426cadf7a3664b8c019eba9f9e2ad4f6b4f3ed02d766fe5e709e4
 
 # if not interactive
 if [ ! -t 0 -a -z "$1" ]
@@ -32,4 +32,4 @@ BASE=$(basename "$FILE")
 MOUNTS="-v $FILE:/tmp/$BASE"
 BASE2=$(basename "$FILE2")
 [ ! -z "$FILE2" ] && MOUNTS="$MOUNTS -v $FILE2:/tmp/$BASE2"
-docker run -it --rm $MOUNTS "$QEMU_IMAGE"
+docker run -it --rm $MOUNTS "$QEMU_IMAGE" console=ttyS0
diff --git a/tools/qemu/qemu.sh b/tools/qemu/qemu.sh
index a1353771d..ebc28b282 100755
--- a/tools/qemu/qemu.sh
+++ b/tools/qemu/qemu.sh
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ then
 	then
 		ARGS="$ARGS -initrd $INITRD"
 	fi
-	ARGS="$ARGS -append console=ttyS0 -drive file=systemdisk.img,format=raw"
+	ARGS="$ARGS -drive file=systemdisk.img,format=raw"
 else
 	echo "no recognised boot media" >2
 	exit 1
@@ -38,4 +38,10 @@ fi
 
 echo "$ARGS" | grep -q systemdisk && qemu-img create -f raw systemdisk.img 256M
 
-qemu-system-x86_64 -device virtio-rng-pci -serial stdio -vnc none -m 1024 $ARGS $*
+CMDLINE="$*"
+if [ -z "${CMDLINE}" ]
+then
+	CMDLINE="console=ttyS0"
+fi
+
+qemu-system-x86_64 -device virtio-rng-pci -serial stdio -vnc none -m 1024 -append "${CMDLINE}" $ARGS