diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index cfdccd1d05..582a178c78 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -676,6 +676,7 @@ headers = [
   'sched.h',
   'sys/auxv.h',
   'sys/ioctl.h',
+  'sys/mman.h',
   'sys/mount.h',
   'sys/syscall.h',
   'sys/ucred.h',
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu.conf.in b/src/qemu/qemu.conf.in
index e1f3046177..59af58b4d4 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu.conf.in
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu.conf.in
@@ -710,8 +710,8 @@
 
 # Determine if guest RAM is included in QEMU core dumps. By
 # default guest RAM will be excluded if a new enough QEMU is
-# present. Setting this to '1' will force guest RAM to always
-# be included in QEMU core dumps.
+# present and host kernel supports it. Setting this to '1' will
+# force guest RAM to always be included in QEMU core dumps.
 #
 # This setting will be ignored if the guest XML has set the
 # dumpCore attribute on the <memory> element.
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_conf.c b/src/qemu/qemu_conf.c
index 0d90a87392..a912790c3c 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_conf.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_conf.c
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <fcntl.h>
 
+#ifdef WITH_SYS_MMAN_H
+# include <sys/mman.h>
+#endif
+
 #include "virerror.h"
 #include "qemu_conf.h"
 #include "qemu_capabilities.h"
@@ -287,6 +291,14 @@ virQEMUDriverConfig *virQEMUDriverConfigNew(bool privileged,
     cfg->deprecationBehavior = g_strdup("none");
     cfg->storageUseNbdkit = USE_NBDKIT_DEFAULT;
 
+#ifndef MADV_DONTDUMP
+    /* QEMU uses Linux extensions to madvise() (MADV_DODUMP/MADV_DONTDUMP) to
+     * include/exclude guest memory from core dump. These might be unavailable
+     * on some systems. Provide sane default. */
+    VIR_INFO("Host kernel doesn't support MADV_DONTDUMP. Enabling dump_guest_core");
+    cfg->dumpGuestCore = true;
+#endif
+
     return g_steal_pointer(&cfg);
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/testutilsqemu.c b/tests/testutilsqemu.c
index ee6cae218a..4daee432e5 100644
--- a/tests/testutilsqemu.c
+++ b/tests/testutilsqemu.c
@@ -407,6 +407,8 @@ int qemuTestDriverInit(virQEMUDriver *driver)
     cfg->hugetlbfs[0].deflt = true;
     cfg->hugetlbfs[1].size = 1048576;
 
+    cfg->dumpGuestCore = false;
+
     driver->privileged = true;
 
     return 0;