diff --git a/src/basic/log.c b/src/basic/log.c
index 7c68258ea8..1d796c5180 100644
--- a/src/basic/log.c
+++ b/src/basic/log.c
@@ -267,28 +267,39 @@ int log_open(void) {
                 return 0;
         }
 
-        if (log_target != LOG_TARGET_AUTO || getpid_cached() == 1 || stderr_is_journal()) {
+        if (getpid_cached() == 1 ||
+            stderr_is_journal() ||
+            IN_SET(log_target,
+                   LOG_TARGET_KMSG,
+                   LOG_TARGET_JOURNAL,
+                   LOG_TARGET_JOURNAL_OR_KMSG,
+                   LOG_TARGET_SYSLOG,
+                   LOG_TARGET_SYSLOG_OR_KMSG)) {
 
-                if (!prohibit_ipc &&
-                    IN_SET(log_target, LOG_TARGET_AUTO,
-                                       LOG_TARGET_JOURNAL_OR_KMSG,
-                                       LOG_TARGET_JOURNAL)) {
-                        r = log_open_journal();
-                        if (r >= 0) {
-                                log_close_syslog();
-                                log_close_console();
-                                return r;
+                if (!prohibit_ipc) {
+                        if (IN_SET(log_target,
+                                   LOG_TARGET_AUTO,
+                                   LOG_TARGET_JOURNAL_OR_KMSG,
+                                   LOG_TARGET_JOURNAL)) {
+
+                                r = log_open_journal();
+                                if (r >= 0) {
+                                        log_close_syslog();
+                                        log_close_console();
+                                        return r;
+                                }
                         }
-                }
 
-                if (!prohibit_ipc &&
-                    IN_SET(log_target, LOG_TARGET_SYSLOG_OR_KMSG,
-                                       LOG_TARGET_SYSLOG)) {
-                        r = log_open_syslog();
-                        if (r >= 0) {
-                                log_close_journal();
-                                log_close_console();
-                                return r;
+                        if (IN_SET(log_target,
+                                   LOG_TARGET_SYSLOG_OR_KMSG,
+                                   LOG_TARGET_SYSLOG)) {
+
+                                r = log_open_syslog();
+                                if (r >= 0) {
+                                        log_close_journal();
+                                        log_close_console();
+                                        return r;
+                                }
                         }
                 }
 
diff --git a/src/basic/log.h b/src/basic/log.h
index c65419b699..ce8bb42ea1 100644
--- a/src/basic/log.h
+++ b/src/basic/log.h
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ typedef enum LogTarget{
         LOG_TARGET_JOURNAL_OR_KMSG,
         LOG_TARGET_SYSLOG,
         LOG_TARGET_SYSLOG_OR_KMSG,
-        LOG_TARGET_AUTO, /* console if stderr is tty, JOURNAL_OR_KMSG otherwise */
+        LOG_TARGET_AUTO, /* console if stderr is not journal, JOURNAL_OR_KMSG otherwise */
         LOG_TARGET_NULL,
         _LOG_TARGET_MAX,
         _LOG_TARGET_INVALID = -1
diff --git a/src/shared/generator.c b/src/shared/generator.c
index 04d2f86a4a..d61b367d33 100644
--- a/src/shared/generator.c
+++ b/src/shared/generator.c
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 
 #include "alloc-util.h"
+#include "cgroup-util.h"
 #include "dropin.h"
 #include "escape.h"
 #include "fd-util.h"
@@ -620,6 +621,11 @@ int generator_write_cryptsetup_service_section(
 }
 
 void log_setup_generator(void) {
-        log_set_prohibit_ipc(true);
-        log_setup_service();
+        /* Disable talking to syslog/journal (i.e. the two IPC-based loggers) if we run in system context. */
+        if (cg_pid_get_owner_uid(0, NULL) == -ENXIO /* not running in a per-user slice */)
+                log_set_prohibit_ipc(true);
+
+        log_set_target(LOG_TARGET_JOURNAL_OR_KMSG); /* This effectively means: journal for per-user generators, kmsg otherwise */
+        log_parse_environment();
+        (void) log_open();
 }