diff --git a/board/qemu/x86/readme.txt b/board/qemu/x86/readme.txt
index 17500961d3..b003ad5373 100644
--- a/board/qemu/x86/readme.txt
+++ b/board/qemu/x86/readme.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Run the emulation with:
 
-  qemu-system-i386 -M pc -kernel output/images/bzImage -drive file=output/images/rootfs.ext2,if=virtio,format=raw -append root=/dev/vda -net nic,model=virtio -net user
+  qemu-system-i386 -M pc -kernel output/images/bzImage -drive file=output/images/rootfs.ext2,if=virtio,format=raw -append "root=/dev/vda" -net nic,model=virtio -net user
 
 Optionally add -smp N to emulate a SMP system with N CPUs.
 
diff --git a/board/qemu/x86_64/readme.txt b/board/qemu/x86_64/readme.txt
index ecd7813a1e..ed7b5f5532 100644
--- a/board/qemu/x86_64/readme.txt
+++ b/board/qemu/x86_64/readme.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Run the emulation with:
 
-  qemu-system-x86_64 -M pc -kernel output/images/bzImage -drive file=output/images/rootfs.ext2,if=virtio,format=raw -append root=/dev/vda -net nic,model=virtio -net user
+  qemu-system-x86_64 -M pc -kernel output/images/bzImage -drive file=output/images/rootfs.ext2,if=virtio,format=raw -append "root=/dev/vda" -net nic,model=virtio -net user
 
 Optionally add -smp N to emulate a SMP system with N CPUs.