diff --git a/tools/appliance/build.sh b/tools/appliance/build.sh
index 4ff99b845a5..24c90b69c78 100755
--- a/tools/appliance/build.sh
+++ b/tools/appliance/build.sh
@@ -427,7 +427,14 @@ function kvm_export() {
     log INFO "creating kvm export"
     local hdd_path="${1}"
     vboxmanage internalcommands converttoraw -format vdi "${hdd_path}" raw.img
-    qemu-img convert -f raw -c -O qcow2 raw.img "${appliance_build_name}-kvm.qcow2"
+    set +e
+    qemu-img convert -o compat=0.10 -f raw -c -O qcow2 raw.img "${appliance_build_name}-kvm.qcow2"
+    local qemuresult=$?
+    set -e
+    if [ ${qemuresult} != 0 ]; then
+      log INFO "'qemu-img convert' failed, trying without compat option"
+      qemu-img convert -f raw -c -O qcow2 raw.img "${appliance_build_name}-kvm.qcow2"
+    fi
     add_on_exit rm -f raw.img
     bzip2 "${appliance_build_name}-kvm.qcow2"
     mv "${appliance_build_name}-kvm.qcow2.bz2" dist/