diff --git a/meta/conf/distro/include/default-distrovars.inc b/meta/conf/distro/include/default-distrovars.inc
index 7554081e8b1a..26fa26f80c31 100644
--- a/meta/conf/distro/include/default-distrovars.inc
+++ b/meta/conf/distro/include/default-distrovars.inc
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 QA_LOGFILE = "${TMPDIR}/qa.log"
 
 OEINCLUDELOGS ?= "yes"
-KERNEL_CONSOLE ?= "ttyS0"
+# if SERIAL_CONSOLES is set, take the first device entry.  Otherwise use ttyS0 as the default
+KERNEL_CONSOLE ?= "${@d.getVar('SERIAL_CONSOLES').split(' ')[0].split(';')[1] or 'ttyS0'}"
 KEEPUIMAGE ??= "yes"
 
 DEFAULT_IMAGE_LINGUAS = "en-us en-gb"
diff --git a/scripts/lib/wic/canned-wks/mkefidisk.wks b/scripts/lib/wic/canned-wks/mkefidisk.wks
index 9f534fe18471..1ab870805ed1 100644
--- a/scripts/lib/wic/canned-wks/mkefidisk.wks
+++ b/scripts/lib/wic/canned-wks/mkefidisk.wks
@@ -8,4 +8,4 @@ part / --source rootfs --ondisk sda --fstype=ext4 --label platform --align 1024
 
 part swap --ondisk sda --size 44 --label swap1 --fstype=swap
 
-bootloader --ptable gpt --timeout=5 --append="rootfstype=ext4 console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0"
+bootloader --ptable gpt --timeout=5 --append="rootfstype=ext4 console=${KERNEL_CONSOLE}"