diff --git a/sys/amd64/amd64/machdep.c b/sys/amd64/amd64/machdep.c
--- a/sys/amd64/amd64/machdep.c
+++ b/sys/amd64/amd64/machdep.c
@@ -202,6 +202,7 @@
 
 long Maxmem = 0;
 long realmem = 0;
+int late_console = 1;
 
 struct kva_md_info kmi;
 
@@ -1301,7 +1302,6 @@
 	struct user_segment_descriptor *gdt;
 	struct region_descriptor r_gdt;
 	size_t kstack0_sz;
-	int late_console;
 
 	TSRAW(&thread0, TS_ENTER, __func__, NULL);
 
@@ -1521,7 +1521,6 @@
 	 * Default to late console initialization to support these drivers.
 	 * This loses mainly printf()s in getmemsize() and early debugging.
 	 */
-	late_console = 1;
 	TUNABLE_INT_FETCH("debug.late_console", &late_console);
 	if (!late_console) {
 		cninit();
diff --git a/sys/dev/uart/uart_cpu_x86.c b/sys/dev/uart/uart_cpu_x86.c
--- a/sys/dev/uart/uart_cpu_x86.c
+++ b/sys/dev/uart/uart_cpu_x86.c
@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@
 bus_space_tag_t uart_bus_space_io = X86_BUS_SPACE_IO;
 bus_space_tag_t uart_bus_space_mem = X86_BUS_SPACE_MEM;
 
+extern int late_console;
+
 int
 uart_cpu_eqres(struct uart_bas *b1, struct uart_bas *b2)
 {
@@ -66,8 +68,12 @@
 		return (0);
 
 #ifdef DEV_ACPI
-	/* Check if SPCR can tell us what console to use. */
-	if (uart_cpu_acpi_spcr(devtype, di) == 0)
+	/*
+	 * Check if SPCR can tell us what console to use.  If running with
+	 * !late_console, we haven't set up our own page tables yet, so we
+	 * can't map ACPI tables to look at them.
+	 */
+	if (late_console && uart_cpu_acpi_spcr(devtype, di) == 0)
 		return (0);
 #endif
 
diff --git a/sys/i386/i386/machdep.c b/sys/i386/i386/machdep.c
--- a/sys/i386/i386/machdep.c
+++ b/sys/i386/i386/machdep.c
@@ -178,6 +178,7 @@
 
 long Maxmem = 0;
 long realmem = 0;
+int late_console = 1;
 
 #ifdef PAE
 FEATURE(pae, "Physical Address Extensions");
@@ -1396,7 +1397,6 @@
 	caddr_t kmdp;
 	vm_offset_t addend;
 	size_t ucode_len;
-	int late_console;
 
 	thread0.td_kstack = proc0kstack;
 	thread0.td_kstack_pages = TD0_KSTACK_PAGES;
@@ -1541,7 +1541,6 @@
 	 * Default to late console initialization to support these drivers.
 	 * This loses mainly printf()s in getmemsize() and early debugging.
 	 */
-	late_console = 1;
 	TUNABLE_INT_FETCH("debug.late_console", &late_console);
 	if (!late_console) {
 		cninit();