--- qemu-kvm-0.15.0.old/vl.c	2011-08-09 13:40:29.000000000 +0100

+++ qemu-kvm-0.15.0/vl.c	2011-08-18 16:38:51.487515037 +0100

@@ -2718,7 +2718,10 @@

                     fprintf(stderr, "parse error: %s\n", optarg);

                     exit(1);

                 }

-                machine = machine_parse(qemu_opt_get(opts, "type"));

+                optarg = qemu_opt_get(opts, "type");

+                if (optarg) {

+                    machine = machine_parse(optarg);

+                }

                 break;

 	    case QEMU_OPTION_no_kvm:

                 olist = qemu_find_opts("machine");