diff --git a/man/vconsole.conf.xml b/man/vconsole.conf.xml
index b03a3de0407..667105109b1 100644
--- a/man/vconsole.conf.xml
+++ b/man/vconsole.conf.xml
@@ -75,9 +75,10 @@
         <term><varname>KEYMAP_TOGGLE=</varname></term>
 
         <listitem><para>Configures the key mapping table for the keyboard.
-        <varname>KEYMAP=</varname> defaults to <literal>&DEFAULT_KEYMAP;</literal> if not set. The
-        <varname>KEYMAP_TOGGLE=</varname> can be used to configure a second toggle keymap and is by
-        default unset.</para></listitem>
+        <varname>KEYMAP=</varname> defaults to <literal>&DEFAULT_KEYMAP;</literal> if not set. Specially,
+        if <literal>kernel</literal> is specified, no keymap will be loaded, i.e. the kernel keymap is used.
+        The <varname>KEYMAP_TOGGLE=</varname> can be used to configure a second toggle keymap and is by default
+        unset.</para></listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
       <varlistentry>
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 9d10d76d9f9..0e1eecfd209 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -947,6 +947,11 @@ nspawn_locale = get_option('nspawn-locale')
 conf.set_quoted('SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_LOCALE', nspawn_locale)
 
 default_keymap = get_option('default-keymap')
+if default_keymap == ''
+        # We canonicalize empty keymap to 'kernel', as it makes the default value
+        # in the factory provided /etc/vconsole.conf more obvious.
+        default_keymap = 'kernel'
+endif
 conf.set_quoted('SYSTEMD_DEFAULT_KEYMAP', default_keymap)
 
 localegen_path = get_option('localegen-path')
diff --git a/src/vconsole/vconsole-setup.c b/src/vconsole/vconsole-setup.c
index dd6e884335b..921e587e948 100644
--- a/src/vconsole/vconsole-setup.c
+++ b/src/vconsole/vconsole-setup.c
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ static int keyboard_load_and_wait(const char *vc, Context *c, bool utf8) {
         map_toggle = context_get_config(c, VC_KEYMAP_TOGGLE);
 
         /* An empty map means kernel map */
-        if (isempty(map))
+        if (isempty(map) || streq(map, "kernel"))
                 return 0;
 
         args[i++] = KBD_LOADKEYS;