diff --git a/arm/fdt.c b/arm/fdt.c
index 7032985..635de7f 100644
--- a/arm/fdt.c
+++ b/arm/fdt.c
@@ -136,9 +136,10 @@
 		if (kvm->cfg.kernel_cmdline)
 			_FDT(fdt_property_string(fdt, "bootargs",
 						 kvm->cfg.kernel_cmdline));
-	} else
+	} else if (kvm->cfg.real_cmdline) {
 		_FDT(fdt_property_string(fdt, "bootargs",
 					 kvm->cfg.real_cmdline));
+	}
 
 	_FDT(fdt_property_u64(fdt, "kaslr-seed", kvm->cfg.arch.kaslr_seed));
 	_FDT(fdt_property_string(fdt, "stdout-path", "serial0"));
diff --git a/builtin-run.c b/builtin-run.c
index 478b5a9..9a1a0c1 100644
--- a/builtin-run.c
+++ b/builtin-run.c
@@ -108,6 +108,9 @@
 	OPT_BOOLEAN('\0', "sdl", &(cfg)->sdl, "Enable SDL framebuffer"),\
 	OPT_BOOLEAN('\0', "rng", &(cfg)->virtio_rng, "Enable virtio"	\
 			" Random Number Generator"),			\
+	OPT_BOOLEAN('\0', "nodefaults", &(cfg)->nodefaults, "Disable"   \
+			" implicit configuration that cannot be"	\
+			" disabled otherwise"),				\
 	OPT_CALLBACK('\0', "9p", NULL, "dir_to_share,tag_name",		\
 		     "Enable virtio 9p to share files between host and"	\
 		     " guest", virtio_9p_rootdir_parser, kvm),		\
@@ -642,7 +645,10 @@
 		}
 	}
 
-	if (!kvm->cfg.using_rootfs && !kvm->cfg.disk_image[0].filename && !kvm->cfg.initrd_filename) {
+	if (!kvm->cfg.nodefaults &&
+	    !kvm->cfg.using_rootfs &&
+	    !kvm->cfg.disk_image[0].filename &&
+	    !kvm->cfg.initrd_filename) {
 		char tmp[PATH_MAX];
 
 		kvm_setup_create_new(kvm->cfg.custom_rootfs_name);
@@ -662,7 +668,10 @@
 			die("Failed to setup init for guest.");
 	}
 
-	kvm_run_set_real_cmdline(kvm);
+	if (kvm->cfg.nodefaults)
+		kvm->cfg.real_cmdline = kvm->cfg.kernel_cmdline;
+	else
+		kvm_run_set_real_cmdline(kvm);
 
 	if (kvm->cfg.kernel_filename) {
 		printf("  # %s run -k %s -m %Lu -c %d --name %s\n", KVM_BINARY_NAME,
diff --git a/include/kvm/kvm-config.h b/include/kvm/kvm-config.h
index 35d45c0..6a5720c 100644
--- a/include/kvm/kvm-config.h
+++ b/include/kvm/kvm-config.h
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 	u8 num_vfio_devices;
 	u64 vsock_cid;
 	bool virtio_rng;
+	bool nodefaults;
 	int active_console;
 	int debug_iodelay;
 	int nrcpus;
diff --git a/mips/kvm.c b/mips/kvm.c
index e110e5d..3470dbb 100644
--- a/mips/kvm.c
+++ b/mips/kvm.c
@@ -131,7 +131,8 @@
 			(unsigned long long)kvm->ram_size - KVM_MMIO_START,
 			(unsigned long long)(KVM_MMIO_START + KVM_MMIO_SIZE));
 
-	strcat(p + cmdline_offset, kvm->cfg.real_cmdline); /* maximum size is 2K */
+	if (kvm->cfg.real_cmdline)
+		strcat(p + cmdline_offset, kvm->cfg.real_cmdline); /* maximum size is 2K */
 
 	while (p[cmdline_offset]) {
 		if (!isspace(p[cmdline_offset])) {