diff --git a/include/semihosting/semihost.h b/include/semihosting/semihost.h
index 0c55ade3ac..5b36a76f08 100644
--- a/include/semihosting/semihost.h
+++ b/include/semihosting/semihost.h
@@ -51,14 +51,6 @@ static inline const char *semihosting_get_cmdline(void)
 {
     return NULL;
 }
-
-static inline Chardev *semihosting_get_chardev(void)
-{
-    return NULL;
-}
-static inline void qemu_semihosting_console_init(void)
-{
-}
 #else /* !CONFIG_USER_ONLY */
 bool semihosting_enabled(void);
 SemihostingTarget semihosting_get_target(void);
@@ -66,12 +58,11 @@ const char *semihosting_get_arg(int i);
 int semihosting_get_argc(void);
 const char *semihosting_get_cmdline(void);
 void semihosting_arg_fallback(const char *file, const char *cmd);
-Chardev *semihosting_get_chardev(void);
 /* for vl.c hooks */
 void qemu_semihosting_enable(void);
 int qemu_semihosting_config_options(const char *opt);
-void qemu_semihosting_connect_chardevs(void);
-void qemu_semihosting_console_init(void);
+void qemu_semihosting_chardev_init(void);
+void qemu_semihosting_console_init(Chardev *);
 #endif /* CONFIG_USER_ONLY */
 
 #endif /* SEMIHOST_H */
diff --git a/semihosting/config.c b/semihosting/config.c
index 3afacf54ab..e171d4d6bc 100644
--- a/semihosting/config.c
+++ b/semihosting/config.c
@@ -51,7 +51,6 @@ QemuOptsList qemu_semihosting_config_opts = {
 typedef struct SemihostingConfig {
     bool enabled;
     SemihostingTarget target;
-    Chardev *chardev;
     char **argv;
     int argc;
     const char *cmdline; /* concatenated argv */
@@ -122,11 +121,6 @@ void semihosting_arg_fallback(const char *file, const char *cmd)
     }
 }
 
-Chardev *semihosting_get_chardev(void)
-{
-    return semihosting.chardev;
-}
-
 void qemu_semihosting_enable(void)
 {
     semihosting.enabled = true;
@@ -172,16 +166,19 @@ int qemu_semihosting_config_options(const char *optarg)
     return 0;
 }
 
-void qemu_semihosting_connect_chardevs(void)
+/* We had to defer this until chardevs were created */
+void qemu_semihosting_chardev_init(void)
 {
-    /* We had to defer this until chardevs were created */
+    Chardev *chr = NULL;
+
     if (semihost_chardev) {
-        Chardev *chr = qemu_chr_find(semihost_chardev);
+        chr = qemu_chr_find(semihost_chardev);
         if (chr == NULL) {
             error_report("semihosting chardev '%s' not found",
                          semihost_chardev);
             exit(1);
         }
-        semihosting.chardev = chr;
     }
+
+    qemu_semihosting_console_init(chr);
 }
diff --git a/semihosting/console.c b/semihosting/console.c
index e5ac3f20ba..1d16a290c4 100644
--- a/semihosting/console.c
+++ b/semihosting/console.c
@@ -27,11 +27,21 @@
 #include "qapi/error.h"
 #include "qemu/fifo8.h"
 
+/* Access to this structure is protected by the BQL */
+typedef struct SemihostingConsole {
+    CharBackend         backend;
+    Chardev             *chr;
+    GSList              *sleeping_cpus;
+    bool                got;
+    Fifo8               fifo;
+} SemihostingConsole;
+
+static SemihostingConsole console;
+
 int qemu_semihosting_log_out(const char *s, int len)
 {
-    Chardev *chardev = semihosting_get_chardev();
-    if (chardev) {
-        return qemu_chr_write_all(chardev, (uint8_t *) s, len);
+    if (console.chr) {
+        return qemu_chr_write_all(console.chr, (uint8_t *) s, len);
     } else {
         return write(STDERR_FILENO, s, len);
     }
@@ -106,16 +116,6 @@ void qemu_semihosting_console_outc(CPUArchState *env, target_ulong addr)
 
 #define FIFO_SIZE   1024
 
-/* Access to this structure is protected by the BQL */
-typedef struct SemihostingConsole {
-    CharBackend         backend;
-    GSList              *sleeping_cpus;
-    bool                got;
-    Fifo8               fifo;
-} SemihostingConsole;
-
-static SemihostingConsole console;
-
 static int console_can_read(void *opaque)
 {
     SemihostingConsole *c = opaque;
@@ -169,10 +169,9 @@ int qemu_semihosting_console_read(CPUState *cs, void *buf, int len)
     return ret;
 }
 
-void qemu_semihosting_console_init(void)
+void qemu_semihosting_console_init(Chardev *chr)
 {
-    Chardev *chr = semihosting_get_chardev();
-
+    console.chr = chr;
     if  (chr) {
         fifo8_create(&console.fifo, FIFO_SIZE);
         qemu_chr_fe_init(&console.backend, chr, &error_abort);
diff --git a/softmmu/vl.c b/softmmu/vl.c
index 3dca5936c7..b24772841d 100644
--- a/softmmu/vl.c
+++ b/softmmu/vl.c
@@ -1917,8 +1917,7 @@ static void qemu_create_late_backends(void)
         exit(1);
 
     /* now chardevs have been created we may have semihosting to connect */
-    qemu_semihosting_connect_chardevs();
-    qemu_semihosting_console_init();
+    qemu_semihosting_chardev_init();
 }
 
 static void qemu_resolve_machine_memdev(void)
diff --git a/stubs/semihost.c b/stubs/semihost.c
index 4bf2cf71b9..f486651afb 100644
--- a/stubs/semihost.c
+++ b/stubs/semihost.c
@@ -65,10 +65,6 @@ void semihosting_arg_fallback(const char *file, const char *cmd)
 {
 }
 
-void qemu_semihosting_connect_chardevs(void)
-{
-}
-
-void qemu_semihosting_console_init(void)
+void qemu_semihosting_chardev_init(void)
 {
 }
