diff --git a/softmmu/vl.c b/softmmu/vl.c
index 5549f4b619..ff2685dff8 100644
--- a/softmmu/vl.c
+++ b/softmmu/vl.c
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #include "qemu/osdep.h"
 #include "qemu-common.h"
 #include "qemu/units.h"
+#include "hw/boards.h"
 #include "hw/qdev-properties.h"
 #include "qapi/error.h"
 #include "qemu-version.h"