diff --git a/configs/targets/nios2-softmmu.mak b/configs/targets/nios2-softmmu.mak
index 5823fc02c8..c99ae3777e 100644
--- a/configs/targets/nios2-softmmu.mak
+++ b/configs/targets/nios2-softmmu.mak
@@ -1,3 +1,2 @@
 TARGET_ARCH=nios2
-TARGET_ALIGNED_ONLY=y
 TARGET_NEED_FDT=y
diff --git a/target/nios2/translate.c b/target/nios2/translate.c
index 6610e22236..a548e16ed5 100644
--- a/target/nios2/translate.c
+++ b/target/nios2/translate.c
@@ -298,6 +298,11 @@ static void gen_ldx(DisasContext *dc, uint32_t code, uint32_t flags)
     TCGv data = dest_gpr(dc, instr.b);
 
     tcg_gen_addi_tl(addr, load_gpr(dc, instr.a), instr.imm16.s);
+#ifdef CONFIG_USER_ONLY
+    flags |= MO_UNALN;
+#else
+    flags |= MO_ALIGN;
+#endif
     tcg_gen_qemu_ld_tl(data, addr, dc->mem_idx, flags);
 }
 
@@ -309,6 +314,11 @@ static void gen_stx(DisasContext *dc, uint32_t code, uint32_t flags)
 
     TCGv addr = tcg_temp_new();
     tcg_gen_addi_tl(addr, load_gpr(dc, instr.a), instr.imm16.s);
+#ifdef CONFIG_USER_ONLY
+    flags |= MO_UNALN;
+#else
+    flags |= MO_ALIGN;
+#endif
     tcg_gen_qemu_st_tl(val, addr, dc->mem_idx, flags);
 }