diff --git a/hw/sparc/leon3.c b/hw/sparc/leon3.c
index 8f024dab7b..cc55117dec 100644
--- a/hw/sparc/leon3.c
+++ b/hw/sparc/leon3.c
@@ -339,16 +339,14 @@ static void leon3_generic_hw_init(MachineState *machine)
                             0, LEON3_TIMER_IRQ, GRLIB_APBIO_AREA);
 
     /* Allocate uart */
-    if (serial_hd(0)) {
-        dev = qdev_create(NULL, TYPE_GRLIB_APB_UART);
-        qdev_prop_set_chr(dev, "chrdev", serial_hd(0));
-        qdev_init_nofail(dev);
-        sysbus_mmio_map(SYS_BUS_DEVICE(dev), 0, LEON3_UART_OFFSET);
-        sysbus_connect_irq(SYS_BUS_DEVICE(dev), 0, cpu_irqs[LEON3_UART_IRQ]);
-        grlib_apb_pnp_add_entry(apb_pnp, LEON3_UART_OFFSET, 0xFFF,
-                                GRLIB_VENDOR_GAISLER, GRLIB_APBUART_DEV, 1,
-                                LEON3_UART_IRQ, GRLIB_APBIO_AREA);
-    }
+    dev = qdev_create(NULL, TYPE_GRLIB_APB_UART);
+    qdev_prop_set_chr(dev, "chrdev", serial_hd(0));
+    qdev_init_nofail(dev);
+    sysbus_mmio_map(SYS_BUS_DEVICE(dev), 0, LEON3_UART_OFFSET);
+    sysbus_connect_irq(SYS_BUS_DEVICE(dev), 0, cpu_irqs[LEON3_UART_IRQ]);
+    grlib_apb_pnp_add_entry(apb_pnp, LEON3_UART_OFFSET, 0xFFF,
+                            GRLIB_VENDOR_GAISLER, GRLIB_APBUART_DEV, 1,
+                            LEON3_UART_IRQ, GRLIB_APBIO_AREA);
 }
 
 static void leon3_generic_machine_init(MachineClass *mc)