diff --git a/fs/cpio/init b/fs/cpio/init
index b0af18b67a..f74ef7e15f 100755
--- a/fs/cpio/init
+++ b/fs/cpio/init
@@ -1,4 +1,15 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 # devtmpfs does not get automounted for initramfs
 /bin/mount -t devtmpfs devtmpfs /dev
+
+# use the /dev/console device node from devtmpfs if possible to not
+# confuse glibc's ttyname_r().
+# This may fail (E.G. booted with console=), and errors from exec will
+# terminate the shell, so use a subshell for the test
+if (exec 0</dev/console) 2>/dev/null; then
+    exec 0</dev/console
+    exec 1>/dev/console
+    exec 2>/dev/console
+fi
+
 exec /sbin/init "$@"