diff --git a/trace/simple.c b/trace/simple.c
index 57572c4905..aaa010ee2b 100644
--- a/trace/simple.c
+++ b/trace/simple.c
@@ -414,15 +414,6 @@ bool trace_backend_init(const char *events, const char *file)
 {
     GThread *thread;
 
-    if (!g_thread_supported()) {
-#if !GLIB_CHECK_VERSION(2, 31, 0)
-        g_thread_init(NULL);
-#else
-        fprintf(stderr, "glib threading failed to initialize.\n");
-        exit(1);
-#endif
-    }
-
 #if !GLIB_CHECK_VERSION(2, 31, 0)
     trace_available_cond = g_cond_new();
     trace_empty_cond = g_cond_new();
diff --git a/util/osdep.c b/util/osdep.c
index bd4f530ad1..a9029f8894 100644
--- a/util/osdep.c
+++ b/util/osdep.c
@@ -436,6 +436,24 @@ int socket_init(void)
     return 0;
 }
 
+/* Ensure that glib is running in multi-threaded mode */
+static void __attribute__((constructor)) thread_init(void)
+{
+    if (!g_thread_supported()) {
+#if !GLIB_CHECK_VERSION(2, 31, 0)
+        /* Old versions of glib require explicit initialization.  Failure to do
+         * this results in the single-threaded code paths being taken inside
+         * glib.  For example, the g_slice allocator will not be thread-safe
+         * and cause crashes.
+         */
+        g_thread_init(NULL);
+#else
+        fprintf(stderr, "glib threading failed to initialize.\n");
+        exit(1);
+#endif
+    }
+}
+
 #ifndef CONFIG_IOVEC
 /* helper function for iov_send_recv() */
 static ssize_t
diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index acd97a841c..2355227bcb 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -2970,14 +2970,6 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
     qemu_init_exec_dir(argv[0]);
 
     g_mem_set_vtable(&mem_trace);
-    if (!g_thread_supported()) {
-#if !GLIB_CHECK_VERSION(2, 31, 0)
-        g_thread_init(NULL);
-#else
-        fprintf(stderr, "glib threading failed to initialize.\n");
-        exit(1);
-#endif
-    }
 
     module_call_init(MODULE_INIT_QOM);