diff --git a/test/vhost/common.sh b/test/vhost/common.sh
index 531eea4b8c..96d5ba2570 100644
--- a/test/vhost/common.sh
+++ b/test/vhost/common.sh
@@ -1,15 +1,12 @@
 : ${SPDK_VHOST_VERBOSE=false}
-: ${QEMU_PREFIX="/usr/local/qemu/spdk-3.0.0"}
 : ${VM_IMAGE="$HOME/vhost_vm_image.qcow2"}
 
 TEST_DIR=$(readlink -f $rootdir/..)
 
-#Check if qemu exists
-if [ ! -d $QEMU_PREFIX ]; then
-	error "Qemu not installed on this machine."
+if ! hash qemu-img qemu-system-x86_64; then
+	error 'QEMU is not installed on this system. Unable to run vhost tests.'
 	exit 1
 fi
-echo "Using qemu folder $QEMU_PREFIX"
 
 VM_BASE_DIR="$TEST_DIR/vms"
 
@@ -617,7 +614,7 @@ function vm_setup()
 
 	if [[ "$os_mode" == "backing" ]]; then
 		notice "Creating backing file for OS image file: $os"
-		if ! $QEMU_PREFIX/bin/qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b $os $vm_dir/os.qcow2; then
+		if ! qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b $os $vm_dir/os.qcow2; then
 			error "Failed to create OS backing file in '$vm_dir/os.qcow2' using '$os'"
 			return 1
 		fi
@@ -650,7 +647,7 @@ function vm_setup()
 	local task_mask=${!qemu_mask_param}
 
 	notice "TASK MASK: $task_mask"
-	local cmd="taskset -a -c $task_mask $QEMU_PREFIX/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 ${eol}"
+	local cmd="taskset -a -c $task_mask qemu-system-x86_64 ${eol}"
 	local vm_socket_offset=$(( 10000 + 100 * vm_num ))
 
 	local ssh_socket=$(( vm_socket_offset + 0 ))
diff --git a/test/vhost/vhost_boot/vhost_boot.sh b/test/vhost/vhost_boot/vhost_boot.sh
index 565e4815c8..ac9aaa521a 100755
--- a/test/vhost/vhost_boot/vhost_boot.sh
+++ b/test/vhost/vhost_boot/vhost_boot.sh
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ timing_enter convert_vm_image
 modprobe nbd
 trap 'nbd_stop_disks $(get_vhost_dir)/rpc.sock /dev/nbd0; err_clean "${FUNCNAME}" "${LINENO}"' ERR
 nbd_start_disks "$(get_vhost_dir)/rpc.sock" $lvb_u /dev/nbd0
-$QEMU_PREFIX/bin/qemu-img convert $os_image -O raw /dev/nbd0
+qemu-img convert $os_image -O raw /dev/nbd0
 sync
 nbd_stop_disks $(get_vhost_dir)/rpc.sock /dev/nbd0
 sleep 1