diff --git a/hw/hw.h b/hw/hw.h
index a424d28f8e..c2c0ac0d7a 100644
--- a/hw/hw.h
+++ b/hw/hw.h
@@ -262,9 +262,10 @@ typedef void QEMUResetHandler(void *opaque);
 
 void qemu_register_reset(QEMUResetHandler *func, void *opaque);
 
-/* handler to set the boot_device for a specific type of QEMUMachine */
+/* handler to set the boot_device order for a specific type of QEMUMachine */
 /* return 0 if success */
-typedef int QEMUBootSetHandler(void *opaque, const char *boot_device);
+typedef int QEMUBootSetHandler(void *opaque, const char *boot_devices);
 void qemu_register_boot_set(QEMUBootSetHandler *func, void *opaque);
+int qemu_boot_set(const char *boot_devices);
 
 #endif
diff --git a/monitor.c b/monitor.c
index 342af32326..c3ef099bda 100644
--- a/monitor.c
+++ b/monitor.c
@@ -1185,28 +1185,15 @@ static void do_ioport_read(Monitor *mon, int count, int format, int size,
                    suffix, addr, size * 2, val);
 }
 
-/* boot_set handler */
-static QEMUBootSetHandler *qemu_boot_set_handler = NULL;
-static void *boot_opaque;
-
-void qemu_register_boot_set(QEMUBootSetHandler *func, void *opaque)
-{
-    qemu_boot_set_handler = func;
-    boot_opaque = opaque;
-}
-
 static void do_boot_set(Monitor *mon, const char *bootdevice)
 {
     int res;
 
-    if (qemu_boot_set_handler)  {
-        res = qemu_boot_set_handler(boot_opaque, bootdevice);
-        if (res == 0)
-            monitor_printf(mon, "boot device list now set to %s\n",
-                           bootdevice);
-        else
-            monitor_printf(mon, "setting boot device list failed with "
-                           "error %i\n", res);
+    res = qemu_boot_set(bootdevice);
+    if (res == 0) {
+        monitor_printf(mon, "boot device list now set to %s\n", bootdevice);
+    } else if (res > 0) {
+        monitor_printf(mon, "setting boot device list failed\n");
     } else {
         monitor_printf(mon, "no function defined to set boot device list for "
                        "this architecture\n");
diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index 06e2fe574a..a771450177 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -274,6 +274,9 @@ static QEMUTimer *nographic_timer;
 
 uint8_t qemu_uuid[16];
 
+static QEMUBootSetHandler *boot_set_handler;
+static void *boot_set_opaque;
+
 /***********************************************************/
 /* x86 ISA bus support */
 
@@ -2356,6 +2359,20 @@ int drive_init(struct drive_opt *arg, int snapshot, void *opaque)
     return drives_table_idx;
 }
 
+void qemu_register_boot_set(QEMUBootSetHandler *func, void *opaque)
+{
+    boot_set_handler = func;
+    boot_set_opaque = opaque;
+}
+
+int qemu_boot_set(const char *boot_devices)
+{
+    if (!boot_set_handler) {
+        return -EINVAL;
+    }
+    return boot_set_handler(boot_set_opaque, boot_devices);
+}
+
 static int parse_bootdevices(char *devices)
 {
     /* We just do some generic consistency checks */