diff --git a/bin/tar2fs b/bin/tar2fs
index 80690c5c..90607562 100755
--- a/bin/tar2fs
+++ b/bin/tar2fs
@@ -218,6 +218,16 @@ if [ -n "$BOOTPART" ]; then
 	echo "$BOOTDEV /boot $BOOTFSTYPE defaults 1 2" >> "$ROOTFS/etc/fstab"
 fi
 
+# Query ARCH in chroot and redefine arch-dependent variable
+ARCH="$(chroot "$ROOTFS" rpm --eval '%_host_cpu')"
+
+if [[ $ARCH = *86* ]]
+	then 	# NB: different storage modules might be needed for non-kvm
+		INITRD_MODULES="sd_mod ata_piix ahci virtio-scsi virtio-blk"
+else
+	INITRD_MODULES=
+fi
+
 echo "MODULES_PRELOAD += $INITRD_MODULES $ROOTFSTYPE" >> "$ROOTFS/etc/initrd.mk"
 
 case "$ARCH" in
@@ -315,3 +325,6 @@ fi
 if [ -n "$SUDO_USER" ]; then
 	chown "$SUDO_USER:$(id -g "$SUDO_USER")" "$IMG" "$ROOTFS" "$WORKDIR" ||:
 fi
+# maybe qemu interpreter was copied to chroot;
+# this is no longer necessary, remove
+rm -rf "$ROOTFS"/.host ||:
diff --git a/features.in/build-vm/lib/90-build-vm.mk b/features.in/build-vm/lib/90-build-vm.mk
index ef28d70f..9b9396b7 100644
--- a/features.in/build-vm/lib/90-build-vm.mk
+++ b/features.in/build-vm/lib/90-build-vm.mk
@@ -23,7 +23,11 @@ check-sudo:
 	fi
 
 prepare-image: check-sudo
-	@if [ -x /usr/share/mkimage-profiles/bin/tar2fs ]; then \
+	@# need to copy $(BUILDDIR)/.work/chroot/.host/qemu* into chroot
+	@#if qemu is used
+	@(cd "$(BUILDDIR)/.work/chroot/"; \
+		tar -rf "$(VM_TARBALL)" ./.host/qemu*) ||:; \
+	if [ -x /usr/share/mkimage-profiles/bin/tar2fs ]; then \
 		TOPDIR=/usr/share/mkimage-profiles; \
 	fi; \
 	if ! sudo $$TOPDIR/bin/tar2fs \