diff --git a/hw/arm/digic.c b/hw/arm/digic.c
index e0f9730325416927b1a2b6f76f6f3d00cd039626..d60ea395f4f4d05e73204dc9722e3e737ee0275b 100644
--- a/hw/arm/digic.c
+++ b/hw/arm/digic.c
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 #include "qemu/osdep.h"
 #include "qapi/error.h"
 #include "hw/arm/digic.h"
+#include "sysemu/sysemu.h"
 
 #define DIGIC4_TIMER_BASE(n)    (0xc0210000 + (n) * 0x100)
 
@@ -84,6 +85,7 @@ static void digic_realize(DeviceState *dev, Error **errp)
         sysbus_mmio_map(sbd, 0, DIGIC4_TIMER_BASE(i));
     }
 
+    qdev_prop_set_chr(DEVICE(&s->uart), "chardev", serial_hds[0]);
     object_property_set_bool(OBJECT(&s->uart), true, "realized", &err);
     if (err != NULL) {
         error_propagate(errp, err);
diff --git a/hw/char/digic-uart.c b/hw/char/digic-uart.c
index 0e44878405d98342a6d26d8be8f04c887d19fca1..c7604e6766aaed23ac1e7425912433893d7bc33b 100644
--- a/hw/char/digic-uart.c
+++ b/hw/char/digic-uart.c
@@ -145,8 +145,6 @@ static void digic_uart_realize(DeviceState *dev, Error **errp)
 {
     DigicUartState *s = DIGIC_UART(dev);
 
-    /* FIXME use a qdev chardev prop instead of qemu_char_get_next_serial() */
-    s->chr = qemu_char_get_next_serial();
     if (s->chr) {
         qemu_chr_add_handlers(s->chr, uart_can_rx, uart_rx, uart_event, s);
     }
@@ -172,6 +170,11 @@ static const VMStateDescription vmstate_digic_uart = {
     }
 };
 
+static Property digic_uart_properties[] = {
+    DEFINE_PROP_CHR("chardev", DigicUartState, chr),
+    DEFINE_PROP_END_OF_LIST(),
+};
+
 static void digic_uart_class_init(ObjectClass *klass, void *data)
 {
     DeviceClass *dc = DEVICE_CLASS(klass);
@@ -179,8 +182,7 @@ static void digic_uart_class_init(ObjectClass *klass, void *data)
     dc->realize = digic_uart_realize;
     dc->reset = digic_uart_reset;
     dc->vmsd = &vmstate_digic_uart;
-    /* Reason: realize() method uses qemu_char_get_next_serial() */
-    dc->cannot_instantiate_with_device_add_yet = true;
+    dc->props = digic_uart_properties;
 }
 
 static const TypeInfo digic_uart_info = {