diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/utils/qemurunner.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/utils/qemurunner.py
index b5fed6c9fe..8b893601d4 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oeqa/utils/qemurunner.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/utils/qemurunner.py
@@ -543,10 +543,13 @@ class QemuRunner:
                 except OSError as e:
                     if e.errno != errno.ESRCH:
                         raise
-            endtime = time.time() + self.runqemutime
-            while self.runqemu.poll() is None and time.time() < endtime:
-                time.sleep(1)
-            if self.runqemu.poll() is None:
+            try:
+                outs, errs = self.runqemu.communicate(timeout = self.runqemutime)
+                if outs:
+                    self.logger.info("Output from runqemu:\n%s", outs.decode("utf-8"))
+                if errs:
+                    self.logger.info("Stderr from runqemu:\n%s", errs.decode("utf-8"))
+            except TimeoutExpired:
                 self.logger.debug("Sending SIGKILL to runqemu")
                 os.killpg(os.getpgid(self.runqemu.pid), signal.SIGKILL)
             if not self.runqemu.stdout.closed: