diff --git a/tests/src/lib.rs b/tests/src/lib.rs
index ac8b7b9..e93d49d 100644
--- a/tests/src/lib.rs
+++ b/tests/src/lib.rs
@@ -63,12 +63,12 @@ fn build_and_boot(
         false,
         true, // the firmware seems to boot only on KVM
         false,
+        &["-display", "none"],
     )?;
     let mut qemu_process = qemu_command
         .stdin(Stdio::null())
         .stdout(Stdio::piped())
         .stderr(Stdio::inherit())
-        .arg("-display").arg("none")
         .spawn()?;
     sleep(Duration::from_secs(5)); // TODO: kernels should probably terminate the VM
     qemu_process.kill()?; // there's no terminate here
diff --git a/towbootctl/src/lib.rs b/towbootctl/src/lib.rs
index bf74dd0..250e97c 100644
--- a/towbootctl/src/lib.rs
+++ b/towbootctl/src/lib.rs
@@ -113,9 +113,9 @@ pub fn create_image(
 }
 
 /// Boot a built image, returning the running process.
-pub fn boot_image(
+pub fn boot_image<S: AsRef<str> + std::convert::AsRef<std::ffi::OsStr>>(
     firmware: Option<&Path>, image: &Path, is_x86_64: bool, use_bochs: bool,
-    use_kvm: bool, use_gdb: bool,
+    use_kvm: bool, use_gdb: bool, args: &[S],
 ) -> Result<(Command, Vec<TempPath>)> {
     info!("getting firmware");
     let firmware_path = if let Some(path) = firmware {
@@ -135,6 +135,7 @@ pub fn boot_image(
         let config = bochsrc(&firmware_path, image, use_gdb)?.into_temp_path();
         let mut bochs = Command::new("bochs");
         bochs.arg("-qf").arg(config.as_os_str());
+        bochs.args(args);
         (bochs, vec![config])
     } else {
         info!("spawning QEMU");
@@ -154,6 +155,7 @@ pub fn boot_image(
             info!("The machine starts paused, waiting for GDB to attach to localhost:1234.");
             qemu.arg("-s").arg("-S");
         }
+        qemu.args(args);
         (qemu, vec![])
     })
 }
@@ -186,6 +188,10 @@ pub struct BootImageCommand {
     /// use the specified firmware instead of OVMF
     #[argh(option)]
     firmware: Option<PathBuf>,
+
+    /// additional arguments to pass to the hypervisor
+    #[argh(positional, greedy)]
+    args: Vec<String>,
 }
 
 #[cfg(feature = "args")]
@@ -193,7 +199,7 @@ impl BootImageCommand {
     pub fn r#do(&self) -> Result<()> {
         let (mut process, _temp_files) = boot_image(
             self.firmware.as_deref(), &self.image, self.x86_64, self.bochs,
-            self.kvm, self.gdb,
+            self.kvm, self.gdb, &self.args,
         )?;
         process.status()?.exit_ok()?;
         Ok(())