diff --git a/board/qemu/ppc64-e5500/readme.txt b/board/qemu/ppc64-e5500/readme.txt
index 61d51f7f4d..7c8c80af44 100644
--- a/board/qemu/ppc64-e5500/readme.txt
+++ b/board/qemu/ppc64-e5500/readme.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Run the emulation with:
 
- qemu-system-ppc64 -M ppce500 -cpu e5500 -m 256 -kernel output/images/uImage -drive file=output/images/rootfs.ext2,if=virtio,format=raw -append "console=ttyS0 rootwait root=/dev/vda" -serial mon:stdio -nographic # qemu_ppc64_e5500_defconfig
+ qemu-system-ppc64 -M ppce500 -cpu e5500 -m 256 -kernel output/images/uImage -drive file=output/images/rootfs.ext2,if=virtio,format=raw -net nic,model=virtio-net-pci -net user -append "console=ttyS0 rootwait root=/dev/vda" -serial mon:stdio -nographic # qemu_ppc64_e5500_defconfig
 
 The login prompt will appear in the terminal that started Qemu.
diff --git a/configs/qemu_ppc64_e5500_defconfig b/configs/qemu_ppc64_e5500_defconfig
index 286d79a26b..09aac50252 100644
--- a/configs/qemu_ppc64_e5500_defconfig
+++ b/configs/qemu_ppc64_e5500_defconfig
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
 BR2_powerpc64=y
 BR2_powerpc_e5500=y
 
-# Serial port config
+# System
+BR2_SYSTEM_DHCP="eth0"
 BR2_TARGET_GENERIC_GETTY_PORT="ttyS0"
 
 # Image