diff --git a/block-raw-posix.c b/block-raw-posix.c
index 97dd30af61..147730dd73 100644
--- a/block-raw-posix.c
+++ b/block-raw-posix.c
@@ -525,6 +525,7 @@ static int posix_aio_init(void)
 {
     sigset_t mask;
     PosixAioState *s;
+    struct aioinit ai;
   
     if (posix_aio_state)
         return 0;
@@ -545,18 +546,19 @@ static int posix_aio_init(void)
 
     qemu_aio_set_fd_handler(s->fd, posix_aio_read, NULL, posix_aio_flush, s);
 
-#if defined(__linux__) && defined(__GLIBC_PREREQ) && !__GLIBC_PREREQ(2, 4)
-    {
-        /* XXX: aio thread exit seems to hang on RedHat 9 and this init
-           seems to fix the problem. */
-        struct aioinit ai;
-        memset(&ai, 0, sizeof(ai));
-        ai.aio_threads = 1;
-        ai.aio_num = 1;
-        ai.aio_idle_time = 365 * 100000;
-        aio_init(&ai);
+    memset(&ai, 0, sizeof(ai));
+#if !defined(__linux__) || (defined(__GLIBC_PREREQ) && __GLIBC_PREREQ(2, 4))
+    ai.aio_threads = 5;
+    ai.aio_num = 1;
+#else
+    /* XXX: aio thread exit seems to hang on RedHat 9 and this init
+       seems to fix the problem. */
+    ai.aio_threads = 1;
+    ai.aio_num = 1;
+    ai.aio_idle_time = 365 * 100000;
     }
 #endif
+    aio_init(&ai);
     posix_aio_state = s;
 
     return 0;
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index dd82e881ce..6a727c0a5a 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -482,8 +482,10 @@ if test "$mingw32" = "yes" ; then
     linux_user="no"
 fi
 
-if [ "$bsd" = "yes" -o "$darwin" = "yes" -o "$mingw32" = "yes" ] ; then
+if [ "$darwin" = "yes" -o "$mingw32" = "yes" ] ; then
     AIOLIBS=
+elif [ "$bsd" = "yes" ]; then
+    AIOLIBS="-lpthread"
 else
     # Some Linux architectures (e.g. s390) don't imply -lpthread automatically.
     AIOLIBS="-lrt -lpthread"