diff --git a/.circleci/create-hash.sh b/.circleci/create-hash.sh
index 63dfa242..939eeb31 100755
--- a/.circleci/create-hash.sh
+++ b/.circleci/create-hash.sh
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ cd $LOCAL_CHIPYARD_DIR
 
 # Use normalized output of git-submodule status as hashfile
 for tools in 'riscv-tools' 'esp-tools' ; do
-    git submodule status "toolchains/${tools}" | while read -r line ; do
+    git submodule status "toolchains/${tools}" "toolchains/qemu" | while read -r line ; do
         echo "${line#[!0-9a-f]}"
     done > "${HOME}/${tools}.hash"
 done
diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 22fb8ea4..6843547b 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -92,3 +92,6 @@
 [submodule "vlsi/hammer-mentor-plugins"]
 	path = vlsi/hammer-mentor-plugins
 	url = https://github.com/ucb-bar/hammer-mentor-plugins.git
+[submodule "toolchains/qemu"]
+	path = toolchains/qemu
+	url = https://github.com/qemu/qemu.git
diff --git a/docs/Software/FireMarshal.rst b/docs/Software/FireMarshal.rst
index ecc23736..da529f13 100644
--- a/docs/Software/FireMarshal.rst
+++ b/docs/Software/FireMarshal.rst
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 FireMarshal
 =================
+``software/firemarshal``
 
 FireMarshal is a workload generation tool for RISC-V based systems. It
 currently only supports the FireSim FPGA-accelerated simulation platform.
diff --git a/scripts/build-toolchains.sh b/scripts/build-toolchains.sh
index 738b5ae7..cde56227 100755
--- a/scripts/build-toolchains.sh
+++ b/scripts/build-toolchains.sh
@@ -121,6 +121,9 @@ cp -p "${SRCDIR}/riscv-isa-sim/build/libfesvr.a" "${RISCV}/lib/"
 CC= CXX= module_all riscv-pk --prefix="${RISCV}" --host=riscv64-unknown-elf
 module_all riscv-tests --prefix="${RISCV}/riscv64-unknown-elf"
 
+# Common tools (not in any particular toolchain dir)
+SRCDIR="$RDIR/toolchains" module_all qemu --prefix="${RISCV}" --target-list=riscv64-softmmu
+
 cd "$RDIR"
 
 {
diff --git a/scripts/init-submodules-no-riscv-tools.sh b/scripts/init-submodules-no-riscv-tools.sh
index e17b67ef..0ce30475 100755
--- a/scripts/init-submodules-no-riscv-tools.sh
+++ b/scripts/init-submodules-no-riscv-tools.sh
@@ -6,11 +6,32 @@ set -o pipefail
 
 RDIR=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
 
+_usage() {
+  echo "usage: ${0} [--no-firesim]" >&2
+  exit 1
+}
+
+NO_FIRESIM=false
+while getopts 'h-:' opt ; do
+  case ${opt} in
+  -)
+    case ${OPTARG} in
+    no-firesim) NO_FIRESIM=true ;;
+    *) echo "invalid option: --${OPTARG}" >&2 ; _usage ;;
+    esac ;;
+  h) _usage ;;
+  *) echo "invalid option: -${opt}" >&2 ; _usage ;;
+  esac
+done
+shift $((OPTIND - 1))
+
 # Ignore toolchain submodules
 cd "$RDIR"
 for name in toolchains/*/*/ ; do
     git config submodule."${name%/}".update none
 done
+git config submodule.toolchains/qemu.update none
+
 # Disable updates to the FireSim submodule until explicitly requested
 git config submodule.sims/firesim.update none
 # Disable updates to the hammer tool plugins repos
@@ -22,13 +43,19 @@ git submodule update --init --recursive #--jobs 8
 for name in toolchains/*/*/ ; do
     git config --unset submodule."${name%/}".update
 done
+git config --unset submodule.toolchains/qemu.update
+
 git config --unset submodule.vlsi/hammer-cadence-plugins.update
 git config --unset submodule.vlsi/hammer-synopsys-plugins.update
 git config --unset submodule.vlsi/hammer-mentor-plugins.update
 
-# Renable firesim and init only the required submodules to provide
-# all required scala deps, without doing a full build-setup
-git config --unset submodule.sims/firesim.update
-git submodule update --init sims/firesim
-git -C sims/firesim submodule update --init sim/midas
-git config submodule.sims/firesim.update none
+if [ $NO_FIRESIM = false ]; then
+echo "initializing firesim"
+  # Renable firesim and init only the required submodules to provide
+  # all required scala deps, without doing a full build-setup
+  git config --unset submodule.sims/firesim.update
+  git submodule update --init sims/firesim
+  git -C sims/firesim submodule update --init sim/midas
+  git -C sims/firesim submodule update --init --recursive sw/firesim-software
+  git config submodule.sims/firesim.update none
+fi
diff --git a/sims/firesim b/sims/firesim
index a1f3a927..226df1d6 160000
--- a/sims/firesim
+++ b/sims/firesim
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit a1f3a927a975dea1200a56260c140998866a1c51
+Subproject commit 226df1d6134aca22e1e1592935b0b8033f8e0734
diff --git a/software/firemarshal b/software/firemarshal
new file mode 120000
index 00000000..c1e20e80
--- /dev/null
+++ b/software/firemarshal
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../sims/firesim/sw/firesim-software/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/toolchains/qemu b/toolchains/qemu
new file mode 160000
index 00000000..4f591025
--- /dev/null
+++ b/toolchains/qemu
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 4f59102571fce49af180cfc6d4cdd2b5df7bdb14