diff --git a/cluster-provision/centos9/vmcli/cmd/qemu/system.go b/cluster-provision/centos9/vmcli/cmd/qemu/system.go
index 31fee0468b..6d0ee0ec95 100644
--- a/cluster-provision/centos9/vmcli/cmd/qemu/system.go
+++ b/cluster-provision/centos9/vmcli/cmd/qemu/system.go
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ func (q QemuSystem) GenerateCmdline() string {
 		"-serial", q.SerialHostDev,
 		"-initrd", q.InitrdPath,
 		"-kernel", q.KernelPath,
-		"-append", fmt.Sprintf("\"%s\"", strings.Join(q.KernelArgs, " ")),
+		"-append", fmt.Sprintf("\"%s\"", strings.TrimSpace(strings.Join(q.KernelArgs, " "))),
 		"-netdev", q.Netdev,
 	}