diff --git a/hw/arm/cubieboard.c b/hw/arm/cubieboard.c
index 6c55d9056f..871b1beef4 100644
--- a/hw/arm/cubieboard.c
+++ b/hw/arm/cubieboard.c
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 #include "exec/address-spaces.h"
 #include "qapi/error.h"
 #include "cpu.h"
+#include "sysemu/sysemu.h"
 #include "hw/sysbus.h"
 #include "hw/boards.h"
 #include "hw/arm/allwinner-a10.h"
@@ -33,6 +34,12 @@ static void cubieboard_init(MachineState *machine)
     AwA10State *a10;
     Error *err = NULL;
 
+    /* BIOS is not supported by this board */
+    if (bios_name) {
+        error_report("BIOS not supported for this machine");
+        exit(1);
+    }
+
     /* This board has fixed size RAM (512MiB or 1GiB) */
     if (machine->ram_size != 512 * MiB &&
         machine->ram_size != 1 * GiB) {