diff --git a/recipes-bsp/bootfiles/rpi-cmdline.bbappend b/recipes-bsp/bootfiles/rpi-cmdline.bbappend
index 5228eea8b3812259b72d5e8f4f168af56f720d01..edd3908868d32237748efe01953b560a74b49e02 100644
--- a/recipes-bsp/bootfiles/rpi-cmdline.bbappend
+++ b/recipes-bsp/bootfiles/rpi-cmdline.bbappend
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@ CMDLINE:append = " modules.load=dwc2,g_serial"
 CMDLINE:append = " earlycon=uart8250,mmio32,0x20215040"
 #CMDLINE:append = " earlycon=pl011,mmio32,0x20201000"
 
+CMDLINE:append = " init=/usr/sbin/fastinit.sh 1"
diff --git a/recipes-core/fastinit/fastinit.bb b/recipes-core/fastinit/fastinit.bb
index 1d97a8d00b4d4e88eb2f351e03e5b3a1dcbbd230..035bea39bdccc76521648736e793dcc7996c1d1f 100644
--- a/recipes-core/fastinit/fastinit.bb
+++ b/recipes-core/fastinit/fastinit.bb
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ LICENSE = "CLOSED"
 
 SRC_URI = "file://fastinit.sh" 
 
+DEPENDS = "libgpiod"
+
 S = "${WORKDIR}"
 
 do_install() {
diff --git a/recipes-core/fastinit/files/fastinit.sh b/recipes-core/fastinit/files/fastinit.sh
index 059a9095cb4550ab2b781acc292ca3fc3ad35ca2..c05cafa089ec19f4e73c4825765d552a0f6866b6 100755
--- a/recipes-core/fastinit/files/fastinit.sh
+++ b/recipes-core/fastinit/files/fastinit.sh
@@ -25,10 +25,12 @@ level_one() {
 	mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
 	mount -o ro /dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot
 
+	log_to_kernel "setting gpio 23 to high"
+	/usr/bin/gpioset -c 0 23=1 &
+
 	log_to_kernel "getting teletypes on ttyS0"
 	/sbin/getty -L 115200 ttyS0 vt100
 }
-
 level_five() {
 	exec /sbin/init 5
 }
@@ -51,6 +53,7 @@ else
 			;;
 		1)
 			log_to_kernel "entering runlevel 1 (minimal)"
+			log_to_kernel "runlevel 1: tty, serial, gpio"
 			level_one
 			;;
 		5)
diff --git a/recipes-core/images/mar-image-minimal.bb b/recipes-core/images/mar-image-minimal.bb
index 30a27008dfcd9a066c823ad25bce9525237bed14..2582ff4a09d6d95e3e6d0fb64d3920a65ef27dfa 100644
--- a/recipes-core/images/mar-image-minimal.bb
+++ b/recipes-core/images/mar-image-minimal.bb
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ IMAGE_INSTALL = "packagegroup-core-boot \
     python3-pyserial \
     screen \
     usb-modeswitch \
+    libgpiod \
+    libgpiod-tools \
     fastinit \
     serial-usb \
     ${CORE_IMAGE_EXTRA_INSTALL}"