diff --git a/scripts/qemustart b/scripts/qemustart
index f0ddefb8399..764b0e65afa 100755
--- a/scripts/qemustart
+++ b/scripts/qemustart
@@ -158,7 +158,8 @@ parse_args() {
 		return 1
 	}
 	[ -n "$o_subtarget" ] || o_subtarget="generic"
-	o_bindir="bin/targets/$o_target/$o_subtarget"
+	eval "$(grep ^CONFIG_BINARY_FOLDER= .config 2>/dev/null)"
+	o_bindir="${CONFIG_BINARY_FOLDER:-bin}/targets/$o_target/$o_subtarget"
 }
 
 start_qemu_armvirt() {