diff --git a/boards/arm/imx6/sabre-6quad/configs/netknsh/defconfig b/boards/arm/imx6/sabre-6quad/configs/netknsh/defconfig
index f9b1f64fd6b..32513f51457 100644
--- a/boards/arm/imx6/sabre-6quad/configs/netknsh/defconfig
+++ b/boards/arm/imx6/sabre-6quad/configs/netknsh/defconfig
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ CONFIG_BOARD_LOOPSPERMSEC=99369
 CONFIG_BOOT_RUNFROMSDRAM=y
 CONFIG_BUILD_KERNEL=y
 CONFIG_CODECS_HASH_MD5=y
+CONFIG_DEBUG_ASSERTIONS=y
 CONFIG_DEBUG_ERROR=y
 CONFIG_DEBUG_FEATURES=y
 CONFIG_DEBUG_FULLOPT=y
@@ -68,6 +69,7 @@ CONFIG_INTELHEX_BINARY=y
 CONFIG_LIBC_ENVPATH=y
 CONFIG_LIBC_EXECFUNCS=y
 CONFIG_MM_PGALLOC=y
+CONFIG_NDEBUG=y
 CONFIG_NET=y
 CONFIG_NETDB_DNSCLIENT=y
 CONFIG_NETDB_DNSCLIENT_ENTRIES=4
@@ -78,6 +80,9 @@ CONFIG_NETINIT_NOMAC=y
 CONFIG_NETUTILS_CODECS=y
 CONFIG_NETUTILS_IPERF=y
 CONFIG_NETUTILS_IPERFTEST_DEVNAME="eth0"
+CONFIG_NETUTILS_TELNETD=y
+CONFIG_NETUTILS_TELNETD_PATH="/system/bin/telnetd"
+CONFIG_NETUTILS_TELNETD_SHELL_PATH="/system/bin/sh"
 CONFIG_NETUTILS_TFTPC=y
 CONFIG_NETUTILS_WEBCLIENT=y
 CONFIG_NET_BROADCAST=y
@@ -92,6 +97,7 @@ CONFIG_NET_UDP=y
 CONFIG_NET_UDP_CHECKSUMS=y
 CONFIG_NFS=y
 CONFIG_NSH_ARCHINIT=y
+CONFIG_NSH_DISABLE_TELNETD=y
 CONFIG_NSH_FILEIOSIZE=512
 CONFIG_NSH_FILE_APPS=y
 CONFIG_NSH_READLINE=y
@@ -119,6 +125,8 @@ CONFIG_SYSTEM_DHCPC_RENEW=y
 CONFIG_SYSTEM_NSH=y
 CONFIG_SYSTEM_NSH_PROGNAME="init"
 CONFIG_SYSTEM_PING=y
+CONFIG_SYSTEM_TELNETD=y
+CONFIG_TELNET_IOTHREAD_STACKSIZE=2048
 CONFIG_TESTING_GETPRIME=y
 CONFIG_TLS_TASK_NELEM=4
 CONFIG_UART1_SERIAL_CONSOLE=y