diff --git a/meta-arm-autonomy/dynamic-layers/meta-gem5/recipes-extended/xen/files/gem5-arm64/early-printk.cfg b/meta-arm-autonomy/dynamic-layers/meta-gem5/recipes-extended/xen/files/gem5-arm64/early-printk.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e89e546c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta-arm-autonomy/dynamic-layers/meta-gem5/recipes-extended/xen/files/gem5-arm64/early-printk.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+CONFIG_DEBUG=y
+CONFIG_EARLY_PRINTK_VEXPRESS=y
diff --git a/meta-arm-autonomy/dynamic-layers/meta-gem5/recipes-extended/xen/xen_%.bbappend b/meta-arm-autonomy/dynamic-layers/meta-gem5/recipes-extended/xen/xen_%.bbappend
index 9e7ba459..ef42c520 100644
--- a/meta-arm-autonomy/dynamic-layers/meta-gem5/recipes-extended/xen/xen_%.bbappend
+++ b/meta-arm-autonomy/dynamic-layers/meta-gem5/recipes-extended/xen/xen_%.bbappend
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
-# Machine specific settings
-XEN_CONFIG_EARLY_PRINTK_gem5-arm64 = "vexpress"
+# gem5-arm64 support
+COMPATIBLE_MACHINE_gem5-arm64 = "gem5-arm64"
+FILESEXTRAPATHS_prepend_gem5-arm64 := "${THISDIR}/files:"
+SRC_URI_append_gem5-arm64 = " file://early-printk.cfg"