diff --git a/qemu/Config.in b/qemu/Config.in
index 99584c8f..52f1936a 100644
--- a/qemu/Config.in
+++ b/qemu/Config.in
@@ -66,10 +66,20 @@ config QEMU_DTB_EXTEND
 	default y if BR2_aarch64
 
 config QEMU_RW
-	string "Writable layer"
+	string "Writable /cfg layer"
 	depends on QEMU_ROOTFS_INITRD
 	default "images/cfg.ext4"
 
+config QEMU_RW_VAR_OPT
+	bool "Separate writable /var (256MB)"
+
+if QEMU_RW_VAR_OPT
+
+config QEMU_RW_VAR
+	string "Writable /var layer"
+	default "images/var.ext4"
+endif
+
 config QEMU_HOST
 	string "Export host filesystem path"
 	default "images"
diff --git a/qemu/qemu.sh b/qemu/qemu.sh
index 6c7c1b80..efddf8a5 100755
--- a/qemu/qemu.sh
+++ b/qemu/qemu.sh
@@ -75,10 +75,19 @@ rw_args()
 
     if ! [ -f "$QEMU_RW" ]; then
 	dd if=/dev/zero of="$QEMU_RW" bs=16M count=1 >/dev/null 2>&1
-	mkfs.ext4 -L cfg "$QEMU_RW"             >/dev/null 2>&1
+	mkfs.ext4 -L cfg "$QEMU_RW" >/dev/null 2>&1
     fi
 
     echo -n "-drive file=$QEMU_RW,if=virtio,format=raw,bus=0,unit=1 "
+
+    if [ "$QEMU_RW_VAR_OPT" ]; then
+	if ! [ -f "$QEMU_RW_VAR" ]; then
+	    dd if=/dev/zero of="$QEMU_RW_VAR" bs=256M count=1 >/dev/null 2>&1
+	    mkfs.ext4 -L var "$QEMU_RW_VAR" >/dev/null 2>&1
+	fi
+
+	echo -n "-drive file=$QEMU_RW_VAR,if=virtio,format=raw,bus=0,unit=2 "
+    fi
 }
 
 host_args()