Orange Pi Zero: No TTY on serial console

[TJNII]

I'm working with a Orange Pi zero and a new user to Armbian.  I'm working with a Orange Pi Zero LTS(H2).  From u-boot:

 

CPU:   Allwinner H3 (SUN8I 1680)
Model: Xunlong Orange Pi Zero
 

The serial console is working.  I'm able to see the kernel and init output, and interact with u-boot.  I've tried two Armbian versions and on both the kernel boots but there is no TTY on the serial port, I'm not able to interact with the OS.  I see getty is launched, but there is no TTY.  Here is the console tail of Armbian_community_24.8.0-trunk.104_Orangepizero_bookworm_current_6.6.31_minimal.img:

 

[   14.371884] random: crng init done
[   14.448177] systemd[1]: Mounted proc-sys-fs-binfmt_misc.mount - Arbitrary Executable File Formats File System.
[  OK  ] Mounted proc-sys-fs-binfmt…ecutable File Formats File System.
[   14.481792] systemd[1]: Finished systemd-random-seed.service - Load/Save Random Seed.
[  OK  ] Finished systemd-random-se…rvice - Load/Save Random Seed.
[   14.513457] systemd[1]: Finished systemd-binfmt.service - Set Up Additional Binary Formats.
[  OK  ] Finished systemd-binfmt.se… Set Up Additional Binary Formats.
[   14.542958] systemd[1]: first-boot-complete.target - First Boot Complete was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionFirstBoot=yes).
[   14.557467] systemd[1]: systemd-machine-id-commit.service - Commit a transient machine-id on disk was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionPathIsMountPoint=/etc/ma.
[   14.642169] systemd[1]: Started systemd-udevd.service - Rule-based Manager for Device Events and Files.
[  OK  ] Started systemd-udevd.serv…nager for Device Events and Files.
[   14.711418] zram: Added device: zram0
[   14.717382] zram: Added device: zram1
[   14.722843] zram: Added device: zram2
[   14.785941] systemd[1]: Found device dev-ttyGS0.device - /dev/ttyGS0.
[  OK  ] Found device dev-ttyGS0.device - /dev/ttyGS0.
[   15.207834] zram0: detected capacity change from 0 to 502296
[   15.427359] Adding 251144k swap on /dev/zram0.  Priority:5 extents:1 across:251144k SS
[   15.624242] systemd[1]: Found device dev-ttyS0.device - /dev/ttyS0.
[  OK  ] Found device dev-ttyS0.device - /dev/ttyS0.
 

On the advice of other forum posts I tried rolling back to an earlier version reported working, here is the console tail of Armbian_23.02.2_Orangepizero_jammy_current_5.15.93_minimal.img:

 

[  OK  ] Started LSB: set CPUFreq kernel parameters.
[  OK  ] Finished resolvconf-pull-resolved.service.
[  OK  ] Finished OpenVPN service.
[  OK  ] Started /etc/rc.local Compatibility.
[  OK  ] Finished Permit User Sessions.
[  OK  ] Started Serial Getty on ttyGS0.
[  OK  ] Started Serial Getty on ttyS0.
         Starting Set console scheme...
         Starting LSB: Set sysfs variables from /etc/sysfs.conf...
[  OK  ] Finished Set console scheme.
[  OK  ] Created slice Slice /system/getty.
[  OK  ] Started Getty on tty1.
[  OK  ] Reached target Login Prompts.
[  OK  ] Started OpenBSD Secure Shell server.
[  OK  ] Started LSB: Set sysfs variables from /etc/sysfs.conf.
[  OK  ] Started chrony, an NTP client/server.
[  OK  ] Reached target Multi-User System.
[  OK  ] Reached target Graphical Interface.
[  OK  ] Reached target System Time Synchronized.
[  OK  ] Started Daily apt download activities.
[  OK  ] Started Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
[  OK  ] Started Daily dpkg database backup timer.
[  OK  ] Started Periodic ext4 Onli…ata Check for All Filesystems.
[  OK  ] Started Discard unused blocks once a week.
[  OK  ] Started Daily rotation of log files.
[  OK  ] Started Run system activit…ounting tool every 10 minutes.
[  OK  ] Started Generate summary o…esterday's process accounting.
[  OK  ] Reached target Timer Units.
         Starting Record Runlevel Change in UTMP...
[  OK  ] Started Hostname Service.
[  OK  ] Finished Record Runlevel Change in UTMP.
 

On both I see messages that imply I should have a terminal, but there isn't any response to keypresses.  As I mentioned I can run commands in u-boot so this does not appear to be a hardware problem.  I have tuned the image to ensure console=serial is set with verbosity=7, but otherwise I'm booting as-imaged.  I haven't tried to configure a serial console since before SystemD took over the world so I don't know where to look for the serial settings anymore.  Searching the forums for this is returning mostly misconfigured hardware, whereas this looks like a tty configuration problem.  This board doesn't have a monitor output, and ethernet does not appear to be working.  Is there configuration needed to get a terminal on the serial console?

[TJNII]

Yea, it's a image problem.  I used the Armbian_23.02.2_Orangepizero_jammy_current_5.15.93_minimal.img kernel/u-boot config but replaced the root filesystem with Gentoo (So no SystemD) and was able to log in fine.  I think SystemD is the problem, the serial config didn't look quite right but when I fiddled with it SystemD detected an error and helpfully deleted the override file.  I didn't mess with it past that, SystemD is awful when you can't run the systemctl commands.  (I mean it's generally awful, but when you can't chroot in it's extra awful.)