diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index e00ae0d..7fe6a39 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -4730,6 +4730,7 @@
 #endif
     CPUState *env;
     int show_vnc_port = 0;
+    int defconfig = 1;
 
     init_clocks();
 
@@ -4789,6 +4790,44 @@
     tb_size = 0;
     autostart= 1;
 
+    /* first pass of option parsing */
+    optind = 1;
+    while (optind < argc) {
+        if (argv[optind][0] != '-') {
+            /* disk image */
+            continue;
+        } else {
+            const QEMUOption *popt;
+
+            popt = lookup_opt(argc, argv, &optarg, &optind);
+            switch (popt->index) {
+            case QEMU_OPTION_nodefconfig:
+                defconfig=0;
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    if (defconfig) {
+        FILE *fp;
+        fp = fopen(CONFIG_QEMU_CONFDIR "/qemu.conf", "r");
+        if (fp) {
+            if (qemu_config_parse(fp) != 0) {
+                exit(1);
+            }
+            fclose(fp);
+        }
+
+        fp = fopen(CONFIG_QEMU_CONFDIR "/target-" TARGET_ARCH ".conf", "r");
+        if (fp) {
+            if (qemu_config_parse(fp) != 0) {
+                exit(1);
+            }
+            fclose(fp);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /* second pass of option parsing */
     optind = 1;
     for(;;) {
         if (optind >= argc)