diff --git a/gnu/local.mk b/gnu/local.mk
index e04b8c2812..5a1c35751f 100644
--- a/gnu/local.mk
+++ b/gnu/local.mk
@@ -1057,6 +1057,7 @@ dist_patch_DATA =						\
   %D%/packages/patches/python-unittest2-python3-compat.patch	\
   %D%/packages/patches/python-unittest2-remove-argparse.patch	\
   %D%/packages/patches/python-waitress-fix-tests.patch		\
+  %D%/packages/patches/qemu-glibc-2.27.patch 			\
   %D%/packages/patches/qt4-ldflags.patch			\
   %D%/packages/patches/qtbase-use-TZDIR.patch			\
   %D%/packages/patches/qtscript-disable-tests.patch		\
diff --git a/gnu/packages/bootloaders.scm b/gnu/packages/bootloaders.scm
index 2ea78c9bac..a519541bc0 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/bootloaders.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/bootloaders.scm
@@ -86,7 +86,8 @@
                                   version ".tar.xz"))
               (sha256
                (base32
-                "17w21spvaxaidi2am5lpsln8yjpyp2zi3s3gc6nsxj5arlgamzgw"))))))
+                "17w21spvaxaidi2am5lpsln8yjpyp2zi3s3gc6nsxj5arlgamzgw"))
+              (patches (search-patches "qemu-glibc-2.27.patch"))))))
 
 (define-public grub
   (package
diff --git a/gnu/packages/patches/qemu-glibc-2.27.patch b/gnu/packages/patches/qemu-glibc-2.27.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b1f354ac1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gnu/packages/patches/qemu-glibc-2.27.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+From 75e5b70e6b5dcc4f2219992d7cffa462aa406af0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
+Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2017 11:51:27 +0100
+Subject: [PATCH] memfd: fix configure test
+MIME-Version: 1.0
+Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf8
+Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
+
+Recent glibc added memfd_create in sys/mman.h.  This conflicts with
+the definition in util/memfd.c:
+
+    /builddir/build/BUILD/qemu-2.11.0-rc1/util/memfd.c:40:12: error: static declaration of memfd_create follows non-static declaration
+
+Fix the configure test, and remove the sys/memfd.h inclusion since the
+file actually does not exist---it is a typo in the memfd_create(2) man
+page.
+
+Cc: Marc-André Lureau <marcandre.lureau@redhat.com>
+Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
+---
+ configure    | 2 +-
+ util/memfd.c | 4 +---
+ 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
+
+diff --git a/configure b/configure
+index 9c8aa5a..99ccc17 100755
+--- a/configure
++++ b/configure
+@@ -3923,7 +3923,7 @@ fi
+ # check if memfd is supported
+ memfd=no
+ cat > $TMPC << EOF
+-#include <sys/memfd.h>
++#include <sys/mman.h>
+ 
+ int main(void)
+ {
+diff --git a/util/memfd.c b/util/memfd.c
+index 4571d1a..412e94a 100644
+--- a/util/memfd.c
++++ b/util/memfd.c
+@@ -31,9 +31,7 @@
+ 
+ #include "qemu/memfd.h"
+ 
+-#ifdef CONFIG_MEMFD
+-#include <sys/memfd.h>
+-#elif defined CONFIG_LINUX
++#if defined CONFIG_LINUX && !defined CONFIG_MEMFD
+ #include <sys/syscall.h>
+ #include <asm/unistd.h>
+ 
+-- 
+1.8.3.1
+
diff --git a/gnu/packages/virtualization.scm b/gnu/packages/virtualization.scm
index 44a4ed2920..761aab4071 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/virtualization.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/virtualization.scm
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ;;; GNU Guix --- Functional package management for GNU
 ;;; Copyright © 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>
-;;; Copyright © 2015, 2016, 2017 Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>
+;;; Copyright © 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>
 ;;; Copyright © 2016, 2017 Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il>
 ;;; Copyright © 2016, 2017 Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>
 ;;; Copyright © 2017 Alex Vong <alexvong1995@gmail.com>
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
   #:use-module (gnu packages admin)
   #:use-module (gnu packages attr)
   #:use-module (gnu packages autotools)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages bison)
   #:use-module (gnu packages check)
   #:use-module (gnu packages compression)
   #:use-module (gnu packages curl)
@@ -37,6 +38,7 @@
   #:use-module (gnu packages dns)
   #:use-module (gnu packages docbook)
   #:use-module (gnu packages documentation)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages flex)
   #:use-module (gnu packages fontutils)
   #:use-module (gnu packages gl)
   #:use-module (gnu packages glib)
@@ -90,7 +92,8 @@
                                  version ".tar.xz"))
              (sha256
               (base32
-               "11l6cs6mib16rgdrnqrhkqs033fjik316gkgfz3asbmxz38lalca"))))
+               "11l6cs6mib16rgdrnqrhkqs033fjik316gkgfz3asbmxz38lalca"))
+             (patches (search-patches "qemu-glibc-2.27.patch"))))
     (build-system gnu-build-system)
     (arguments
      '(;; Running tests in parallel can occasionally lead to failures, like:
@@ -192,6 +195,8 @@ exec smbd $@")))
        ("zlib" ,zlib)))
     (native-inputs `(("glib:bin" ,glib "bin") ; gtester, etc.
                      ("perl" ,perl)
+                     ("flex" ,flex)
+                     ("bison" ,bison)
                      ("pkg-config" ,pkg-config)
                      ("python" ,python-2) ; incompatible with Python 3 according to error message
                      ("texinfo" ,texinfo)))