diff --git a/block/qcow2-cache.c b/block/qcow2-cache.c
index 6eaefed..1d25147 100644
--- a/block/qcow2-cache.c
+++ b/block/qcow2-cache.c
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@
  * THE SOFTWARE.
  */
 
-/* Needed for CONFIG_MADVISE */
 #include "qemu/osdep.h"
 #include "block/block_int.h"
 #include "qemu-common.h"
@@ -66,7 +65,8 @@
 static void qcow2_cache_table_release(BlockDriverState *bs, Qcow2Cache *c,
                                       int i, int num_tables)
 {
-#if QEMU_MADV_DONTNEED != QEMU_MADV_INVALID
+/* Using MADV_DONTNEED to discard memory is a Linux-specific feature */
+#ifdef CONFIG_LINUX
     BDRVQcow2State *s = bs->opaque;
     void *t = qcow2_cache_get_table_addr(bs, c, i);
     int align = getpagesize();
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@
     size_t offset = QEMU_ALIGN_UP((uintptr_t) t, align) - (uintptr_t) t;
     size_t length = QEMU_ALIGN_DOWN(mem_size - offset, align);
     if (length > 0) {
-        qemu_madvise((uint8_t *) t + offset, length, QEMU_MADV_DONTNEED);
+        madvise((uint8_t *) t + offset, length, MADV_DONTNEED);
     }
 #endif
 }
diff --git a/block/qcow2.c b/block/qcow2.c
index 7cfcd84..ed9e0f3 100644
--- a/block/qcow2.c
+++ b/block/qcow2.c
@@ -668,6 +668,14 @@
     r->cache_clean_interval =
         qemu_opt_get_number(opts, QCOW2_OPT_CACHE_CLEAN_INTERVAL,
                             s->cache_clean_interval);
+#ifndef CONFIG_LINUX
+    if (r->cache_clean_interval != 0) {
+        error_setg(errp, QCOW2_OPT_CACHE_CLEAN_INTERVAL
+                   " not supported on this host");
+        ret = -EINVAL;
+        goto fail;
+    }
+#endif
     if (r->cache_clean_interval > UINT_MAX) {
         error_setg(errp, "Cache clean interval too big");
         ret = -EINVAL;
diff --git a/docs/qcow2-cache.txt b/docs/qcow2-cache.txt
index 5bb0607..1fdd6f9 100644
--- a/docs/qcow2-cache.txt
+++ b/docs/qcow2-cache.txt
@@ -160,5 +160,6 @@
 this feature.
 
 Note that this functionality currently relies on the MADV_DONTNEED
-argument for madvise() to actually free the memory, so it is not
-useful in systems that don't follow that behavior.
+argument for madvise() to actually free the memory. This is a
+Linux-specific feature, so cache-clean-interval is not supported in
+other systems.