diff --git a/configs/qemu_arm_versatile_defconfig b/configs/qemu_arm_versatile_defconfig
index 4d8233d19f..9c990fb518 100644
--- a/configs/qemu_arm_versatile_defconfig
+++ b/configs/qemu_arm_versatile_defconfig
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 BR2_arm=y
 BR2_arm926t=y
 
+# system
+BR2_TARGET_GENERIC_GETTY=y
+BR2_TARGET_GENERIC_GETTY_PORT="ttyAMA0"
+
 # filesystem
 BR2_TARGET_ROOTFS_EXT2=y
 # BR2_TARGET_ROOTFS_TAR is not set