diff --git a/meta-zephyr-bsp/conf/machine/qemu-nios2.conf b/meta-zephyr-bsp/conf/machine/qemu-nios2.conf
index de20320..c41f505 100644
--- a/meta-zephyr-bsp/conf/machine/qemu-nios2.conf
+++ b/meta-zephyr-bsp/conf/machine/qemu-nios2.conf
@@ -14,3 +14,5 @@ QB_OPT_APPEND = "-nographic"
 QB_CPU = "-cpu nios2"
 
 ARCH:qemu-nios2 = "nios2"
+
+TCLIBC = "glibc"
diff --git a/meta-zephyr-core/conf/distro/zephyr.conf b/meta-zephyr-core/conf/distro/zephyr.conf
index 6ecd421..bdf1821 100644
--- a/meta-zephyr-core/conf/distro/zephyr.conf
+++ b/meta-zephyr-core/conf/distro/zephyr.conf
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ DISTRO_VERSION = "1.0"
 
 TARGET_VENDOR = "-yocto"
 
-TCLIBC = "newlib"
+TCLIBC ?= "newlib"
 
 TEST_TARGET = "QemuTargetZephyr"
 TEST_SUITES = "zephyr"