diff --git a/configs/example/gem5_library/x86-spec-cpu2006-benchmarks.py b/configs/example/gem5_library/x86-spec-cpu2006-benchmarks.py
index 5624eaf89d..c1b7a3bebc 100644
--- a/configs/example/gem5_library/x86-spec-cpu2006-benchmarks.py
+++ b/configs/example/gem5_library/x86-spec-cpu2006-benchmarks.py
@@ -117,7 +117,8 @@ parser.add_argument(
 parser.add_argument(
     "--partition",
     type = str,
-    required = True,
+    required = False,
+    default=None,
     help = "Input the root partition of the SPEC disk-image. If the disk is \
     not partitioned, then pass \"\"."
 )
diff --git a/configs/example/gem5_library/x86-spec-cpu2017-benchmarks.py b/configs/example/gem5_library/x86-spec-cpu2017-benchmarks.py
index 25bbbeabc7..2a03389ebf 100644
--- a/configs/example/gem5_library/x86-spec-cpu2017-benchmarks.py
+++ b/configs/example/gem5_library/x86-spec-cpu2017-benchmarks.py
@@ -123,7 +123,8 @@ parser.add_argument(
 parser.add_argument(
     "--partition",
     type = str,
-    required = True,
+    required = False,
+    default=None,
     help = "Input the root partition of the SPEC disk-image. If the disk is \
     not partitioned, then pass \"\"."
 )