diff --git a/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/25-guestagent-base.sh b/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/25-guestagent-base.sh
index d94533e9e59..82c8ab6f126 100644
--- a/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/25-guestagent-base.sh
+++ b/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/25-guestagent-base.sh
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ name="lima-guestagent"
 description="Forward ports to the lima-hostagent"
 
 command=${LIMA_CIDATA_GUEST_INSTALL_PREFIX}/bin/lima-guestagent
-command_args="daemon --vsock-port "${LIMA_CIDATA_VSOCK_PORT}" --virtio-port "${LIMA_CIDATA_VIRTIO_PORT}""
+command_args="daemon --vsock-port \"${LIMA_CIDATA_VSOCK_PORT}\" --virtio-port \"${LIMA_CIDATA_VIRTIO_PORT}\""
 command_background=true
 pidfile="/run/lima-guestagent.pid"
 EOF
diff --git a/pkg/hostagent/hostagent.go b/pkg/hostagent/hostagent.go
index ff7e3967330..5ae5858a0a8 100644
--- a/pkg/hostagent/hostagent.go
+++ b/pkg/hostagent/hostagent.go
@@ -128,7 +128,8 @@ func New(instName string, stdout io.Writer, sigintCh chan os.Signal, opts ...Opt
 		}
 		vSockPort = port
 	} else if *y.VMType == limayaml.QEMU {
-		virtioPort = filenames.VirtioPort
+		// virtserialport doesn't seem to work reliably: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/issues/2064
+		virtioPort = "" // filenames.VirtioPort
 	}
 
 	if err := cidata.GenerateISO9660(inst.Dir, instName, y, udpDNSLocalPort, tcpDNSLocalPort, o.nerdctlArchive, vSockPort, virtioPort); err != nil {