diff --git a/scripts/runqemu b/scripts/runqemu
index 36af764b1b..6e1f073ed2 100755
--- a/scripts/runqemu
+++ b/scripts/runqemu
@@ -182,6 +182,7 @@ class BaseConfig(object):
         self.gl = False
         self.gl_es = False
         self.egl_headless = False
+        self.publicvnc = False
         self.novga = False
         self.cleantap = False
         self.saved_stty = ''
@@ -521,6 +522,7 @@ class BaseConfig(object):
             elif arg == 'snapshot':
                 self.snapshot = True
             elif arg == 'publicvnc':
+                self.publicvnc = True
                 self.qemu_opt_script += ' -vnc :0'
             elif arg.startswith('tcpserial='):
                 self.tcpserial_portnum = '%s' % arg[len('tcpserial='):]
@@ -1366,7 +1368,7 @@ class BaseConfig(object):
         # If we have no display option, we autodetect based upon what qemu supports. We
         # need our font setup and show-cusor below so we need to see what qemu --help says
         # is supported so we can pass our correct config in.
-        if not self.nographic and not self.sdl and not self.gtk and not self.egl_headless == True:
+        if not self.nographic and not self.sdl and not self.gtk and not self.publicvnc and not self.egl_headless == True:
             output = subprocess.check_output([self.qemu_bin, "--help"], universal_newlines=True)
             if "-display gtk" in output:
                 self.gtk = True