diff --git a/qemu/cfg/unittests.cfg b/qemu/cfg/unittests.cfg
index cdb8678af266664ec7103d61bcb468259293581d..fae7b7ca68020a6d2b4b06a9392730da53245864 100644
--- a/qemu/cfg/unittests.cfg
+++ b/qemu/cfg/unittests.cfg
@@ -74,8 +74,11 @@ variants:
         type = unittest
         vms = ''
         start_vm = no
-        unittest_timeout = 600
+        unittest_timeout = 240
         testdev = yes
+        isa_debugexit = yes
+        isa_debugexit_iobase = 0xf4
+        isa_debugexit_iosize = 0x04
         extra_params += " -S"
         # In case you want to execute only a subset of the tests defined on the
         # unittests.cfg file on qemu-kvm, uncomment and edit test_list
@@ -83,4 +86,18 @@ variants:
         # In case you want to excluse just some of the tests, use a blacklist
         #unittest_test_blacklist = access apic emulator
 
-only build unittest
+# If you want to run the unittest with the test runner, you could do:
+# 1) Check out the kvm-unit-tests suite
+# 2) Compile it:
+#    ./configure
+#    make
+# 3) link the x86 subdir of your kvm-unit-tests suite in your qemu/ subdir
+#    in virt-test
+#    ln -s /path/to/kvm-unit-tests/x86 /path/to/virt-test/qemu/
+# 4) On virt-test directory, execute the runner:
+#    ./run -c qemu/cfg/unittests.cfg --qemu-bin /path/to/your/qemu
+
+# If you want to run the build test together with unittest
+#only build unittest
+# If you want to run only the unittest
+only unittest
diff --git a/qemu/tests/unittest.py b/qemu/tests/unittest.py
index 8bb3eb7dbff8f065c854cb46770b5d920937e4b5..449a08dd069d08762f2672881cc410f0d10970fe 100644
--- a/qemu/tests/unittest.py
+++ b/qemu/tests/unittest.py
@@ -90,8 +90,10 @@ def run_unittest(test, params, env):
 
         vm_name = params.get("main_vm")
         params['kernel'] = os.path.join(unittest_dir, flat_file)
+
         testlog_path = os.path.join(test.debugdir, "%s.log" % t)
 
+        testlog = None
         try:
             try:
                 vm_name = params.get('main_vm')
@@ -99,26 +101,45 @@ def run_unittest(test, params, env):
                 vm = env.get_vm(vm_name)
                 vm.create()
                 vm.resume()
-                logging.info("Waiting for unittest %s to complete, timeout %s, "
-                             "output in %s", t, timeout,
-                             vm.get_testlog_filename())
+                testlog = vm.get_testlog_filename()
+
+                msg = ("Waiting for unittest %s to complete, timeout %s" %
+                       (t, timeout))
+                if os.path.isfile(testlog):
+                    msg += (", output in %s" % testlog)
+                else:
+                    testlog = None
+                logging.info(msg)
+
                 if not utils_misc.wait_for(vm.is_dead, timeout):
                     raise error.TestFail("Timeout elapsed (%ss)" % timeout)
+
                 # Check qemu's exit status
                 status = vm.process.get_status()
-                if status != 0:
+
+                # Check whether there's an isa_debugexit device in the vm
+                isa_debugexit = 'isa-debug-exit' in vm.qemu_command
+
+                if isa_debugexit:
+                    good_status = 1
+                else:
+                    good_status = 0
+
+                if status != good_status:
                     nfail += 1
                     tests_failed.append(t)
                     logging.error("Unit test %s failed", t)
+
             except Exception, e:
                 nfail += 1
                 tests_failed.append(t)
                 logging.error('Exception happened during %s: %s', t, str(e))
         finally:
             try:
-                shutil.copy(vm.get_testlog_filename(), testlog_path)
-                logging.info("Unit test log collected and available under %s",
-                             testlog_path)
+                if testlog is not None:
+                    shutil.copy(vm.get_testlog_filename(), testlog_path)
+                    logging.info("Unit test log collected and available "
+                                 "under %s", testlog_path)
             except (NameError, IOError):
                 logging.error("Not possible to collect logs")