diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 12fd34f30b..de768e2343 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -107,6 +107,9 @@ update_cxxflags() {
             -Wstrict-prototypes|-Wmissing-prototypes|-Wnested-externs|\
             -Wold-style-declaration|-Wold-style-definition|-Wredundant-decls)
                 ;;
+            -std=gnu99)
+                QEMU_CXXFLAGS=${QEMU_CXXFLAGS:+$QEMU_CXXFLAGS }"-std=gnu++98"
+                ;;
             *)
                 QEMU_CXXFLAGS=${QEMU_CXXFLAGS:+$QEMU_CXXFLAGS }$arg
                 ;;
@@ -584,7 +587,7 @@ ARFLAGS="${ARFLAGS-rv}"
 # left shift of signed integers is well defined and has the expected
 # 2s-complement style results. (Both clang and gcc agree that it
 # provides these semantics.)
-QEMU_CFLAGS="-fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -fwrapv $QEMU_CFLAGS"
+QEMU_CFLAGS="-fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -fwrapv -std=gnu99 $QEMU_CFLAGS"
 QEMU_CFLAGS="-Wall -Wundef -Wwrite-strings -Wmissing-prototypes $QEMU_CFLAGS"
 QEMU_CFLAGS="-Wstrict-prototypes -Wredundant-decls $QEMU_CFLAGS"
 QEMU_CFLAGS="-D_GNU_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE $QEMU_CFLAGS"