diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/utils/qemurunner.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/utils/qemurunner.py
index 8b893601d4..2e054447fc 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oeqa/utils/qemurunner.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/utils/qemurunner.py
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ class QemuRunner:
         qmp_file = "." + next(tempfile._get_candidate_names())
         qmp_param = ' -S -qmp unix:./%s,server,wait' % (qmp_file)
         qmp_port = self.tmpdir + "/" + qmp_file
-        # Create a second socket connection for debugging use, 
+        # Create a second socket connection for debugging use,
         # note this will NOT cause qemu to block waiting for the connection
         qmp_file2 = "." + next(tempfile._get_candidate_names())
         qmp_param += ' -qmp unix:./%s,server,nowait' % (qmp_file2)
@@ -468,6 +468,8 @@ class QemuRunner:
                     socklist.remove(self.server_socket)
                     self.logger.debug("Connection from %s:%s" % addr)
                 else:
+                    # try to avoid reading only a single character at a time
+                    time.sleep(0.1)
                     data = data + sock.recv(1024)
                     if data:
                         bootlog += data