diff --git a/configs/devices/aarch64-softmmu/minimal.mak b/configs/devices/aarch64-softmmu/minimal.mak
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0ebc1dca56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/configs/devices/aarch64-softmmu/minimal.mak
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#
+# A minimal version of the config that only supports only a few
+# virtual machines. This avoids bringing in any of numerous legacy
+# features from the 32bit platform (although virt still supports 32bit
+# itself)
+#
+
+CONFIG_ARM_VIRT=y
+CONFIG_SBSA_REF=y
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 4eba89f823..85db248ac1 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -915,6 +915,18 @@ for opt do
   ;;
   --without-default-devices) default_devices="false"
   ;;
+  --with-devices-*[!a-zA-Z0-9_-]*=*) error_exit "Passed bad --with-devices-FOO option"
+  ;;
+  --with-devices-*) device_arch=${opt#--with-devices-};
+                    device_arch=${device_arch%%=*}
+                    cf=$source_path/configs/devices/$device_arch-softmmu/$optarg.mak
+                    if test -f "$cf"; then
+                        device_archs="$device_archs $device_arch"
+                        eval "devices_${device_arch}=\$optarg"
+                    else
+                        error_exit "File $cf does not exist"
+                    fi
+  ;;
   --without-default-features) # processed above
   ;;
   --enable-gprof) gprof="yes"
@@ -1764,7 +1776,8 @@ Advanced options (experts only):
   --without-default-features default all --enable-* options to "disabled"
   --without-default-devices  do not include any device that is not needed to
                            start the emulator (only use if you are including
-                           desired devices in default-configs/devices/)
+                           desired devices in configs/devices/)
+  --with-devices-ARCH=NAME override default configs/devices
   --enable-debug           enable common debug build options
   --enable-sanitizers      enable default sanitizers
   --enable-tsan            enable thread sanitizer
@@ -5082,6 +5095,15 @@ if test "$skip_meson" = no; then
 
   echo "# Automatically generated by configure - do not modify" > $cross
   echo "[properties]" >> $cross
+
+  # unroll any custom device configs
+  if test -n "$device_archs"; then
+      for a in $device_archs; do
+          eval "c=\$devices_${a}"
+          echo "${a}-softmmu = '$c'" >> $cross
+      done
+  fi
+
   test -z "$cxx" && echo "link_language = 'c'" >> $cross
   echo "[built-in options]" >> $cross
   echo "c_args = [${CFLAGS:+$(meson_quote $CFLAGS)}]" >> $cross
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 71c7462e89..651c3b114b 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1595,9 +1595,10 @@ foreach target : target_dirs
                                                configuration: config_target_data)}
 
   if target.endswith('-softmmu')
+    config_input = meson.get_external_property(target, 'default')
     config_devices_mak = target + '-config-devices.mak'
     config_devices_mak = configure_file(
-      input: ['configs/devices' / target / 'default.mak', 'Kconfig'],
+      input: ['configs/devices' / target / config_input + '.mak', 'Kconfig'],
       output: config_devices_mak,
       depfile: config_devices_mak + '.d',
       capture: true,