diff --git a/include/zephyr/arch/xtensa/arch.h b/include/zephyr/arch/xtensa/arch.h
index c69f0835663541..377fb9ea0f5832 100644
--- a/include/zephyr/arch/xtensa/arch.h
+++ b/include/zephyr/arch/xtensa/arch.h
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ extern "C" {
 
 struct arch_mem_domain {
 #ifdef CONFIG_XTENSA_MMU
-	uint32_t *ptables __aligned(CONFIG_MMU_PAGE_SIZE);
+	uint32_t *ptables;
 	uint8_t asid;
 	bool dirty;
 #endif
diff --git a/tests/kernel/threads/thread_error_case/boards/qemu_xtensa_dc233c_mmu.conf b/tests/kernel/threads/thread_error_case/boards/qemu_xtensa_dc233c_mmu.conf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..469d835c3222b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/kernel/threads/thread_error_case/boards/qemu_xtensa_dc233c_mmu.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# For some weird reasons, enabling ICOUNT would crash QEMU
+# on this test. So disable it.
+CONFIG_QEMU_ICOUNT=n