diff --git a/man/custom-entities.ent.in b/man/custom-entities.ent.in
index 4494a1c3ab..beff1529a7 100644
--- a/man/custom-entities.ent.in
+++ b/man/custom-entities.ent.in
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 <!ENTITY HIGH_RLIMIT_NOFILE "{{HIGH_RLIMIT_NOFILE}}">
 <!ENTITY DEFAULT_DNSSEC_MODE "{{DEFAULT_DNSSEC_MODE_STR}}">
 <!ENTITY DEFAULT_DNS_OVER_TLS_MODE "{{DEFAULT_DNS_OVER_TLS_MODE_STR}}">
+<!ENTITY FALLBACK_DEFAULT_TARGET "{{FALLBACK_DEFAULT_TARGET}}">
 <!ENTITY DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_SEC "{{DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_SEC}} s">
 <!ENTITY DEFAULT_USER_TIMEOUT_SEC "{{DEFAULT_USER_TIMEOUT_SEC}} s">
 <!ENTITY SYSTEMD_DEFAULT_KEYMAP "{{SYSTEMD_DEFAULT_KEYMAP}}">
diff --git a/man/systemd.special.xml b/man/systemd.special.xml
index f6f35b861d..deba4f8e4f 100644
--- a/man/systemd.special.xml
+++ b/man/systemd.special.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 <?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
-  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
+  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
+<!ENTITY % entities SYSTEM "custom-entities.ent" >
+%entities;
+]>
 <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
 
 <refentry id="systemd.special" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
@@ -239,6 +242,13 @@
             <varname>3</varname>, <varname>5</varname>, …; see
             <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
 
+            <para>If <filename>default.target</filename> is not present on disk and no unit was requested on
+            the kernel command line, the default set at compile time will be used
+            (<filename>&FALLBACK_DEFAULT_TARGET;</filename>).</para>
+
+            <para>If the default unit or one of the fallbacks cannot be started, systemd starts
+            <filename>rescue.target</filename>.</para>
+
             <para>For typical unit files please set <literal>WantedBy=</literal> to a regular target (like
             <filename>multi-user.target</filename> or <filename>graphical.target</filename>),
             instead of <filename>default.target</filename>, since such a service will also be run on special
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index abdde0040b..423f921834 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -726,6 +726,9 @@ if fallback_hostname == '' or fallback_hostname[0] == '.' or fallback_hostname[0
 endif
 conf.set_quoted('FALLBACK_HOSTNAME', fallback_hostname)
 
+fallback_default_target = get_option('fallback-default-target')
+conf.set_quoted('FALLBACK_DEFAULT_TARGET', fallback_default_target)
+
 extra_net_naming_schemes = []
 extra_net_naming_map = []
 foreach scheme: get_option('extra-net-naming-schemes').split(',')
@@ -2751,6 +2754,7 @@ summary({
         'nobody user name'                          : nobody_user,
         'nobody group name'                         : nobody_group,
         'fallback hostname'                         : get_option('fallback-hostname'),
+        'fallback default target'                   : fallback_default_target,
         'default compression method'                : compression,
         'default DNSSEC mode'                       : default_dnssec,
         'default DNS-over-TLS mode'                 : default_dns_over_tls,
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 8df682742d..9c0cda4c38 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -267,6 +267,8 @@ option('clock-valid-range-usec-max', type : 'integer', value : 473364000000000,
        description : 'maximum value in microseconds for the difference between RTC and epoch, exceeding which is considered an RTC error ["0" disables]')
 option('default-user-shell', type : 'string', value : '/bin/bash',
        description : 'default interactive shell')
+option('fallback-default-target', type : 'string', value : 'graphical.target',
+       description : 'unit to activate when default.target is not found on disk')
 
 option('system-alloc-uid-min', type : 'integer', value : 0,
        description : 'minimum system UID used when allocating')
diff --git a/src/core/main.c b/src/core/main.c
index c476400a93..3dd227f244 100644
--- a/src/core/main.c
+++ b/src/core/main.c
@@ -2768,15 +2768,22 @@ static int do_queue_default_job(
         log_debug("Activating default unit: %s", unit);
 
         r = manager_load_startable_unit_or_warn(m, unit, NULL, &target);
-        if (r < 0 && in_initrd() && !arg_default_unit) {
-                /* Fall back to default.target, which we used to always use by default. Only do this if no
-                 * explicit configuration was given. */
+        if (r == -ENOENT && !arg_default_unit) {
+                if (in_initrd())
+                        /* Fall back to default.target, which we used to always use by default.
+                         * Only do this if no explicit configuration was given. */
+                        unit = SPECIAL_DEFAULT_TARGET;
+                else
+                        /* The default.target symlink was not found on disk and the target was not
+                         * explicitly specified. Fall back to the target configured at build time
+                         * via -Ddefault-target=. */
+                        unit = FALLBACK_DEFAULT_TARGET;
 
-                log_info("Falling back to %s.", SPECIAL_DEFAULT_TARGET);
-
-                r = manager_load_startable_unit_or_warn(m, SPECIAL_DEFAULT_TARGET, NULL, &target);
+                log_info("Falling back to %s.", unit);
+                r = manager_load_startable_unit_or_warn(m, unit, NULL, &target);
         }
         if (r < 0) {
+                /* We failed. Activate rescue mode. */
                 log_info("Falling back to %s.", SPECIAL_RESCUE_TARGET);
 
                 r = manager_load_startable_unit_or_warn(m, SPECIAL_RESCUE_TARGET, NULL, &target);
diff --git a/src/test/test-unit-name.c b/src/test/test-unit-name.c
index 7f71f5fdc7..c218e015fa 100644
--- a/src/test/test-unit-name.c
+++ b/src/test/test-unit-name.c
@@ -88,6 +88,9 @@ TEST(unit_name_is_valid) {
         test_unit_name_is_valid_one("foo.target.wants/plain.service", UNIT_NAME_ANY, false);
         test_unit_name_is_valid_one("foo.target.conf/foo.conf", UNIT_NAME_ANY, false);
         test_unit_name_is_valid_one("foo.target.requires/plain.socket", UNIT_NAME_ANY, false);
+
+        /* The build-time configured fallback for default.target must be a valid plain unit name. */
+        test_unit_name_is_valid_one(FALLBACK_DEFAULT_TARGET, UNIT_NAME_PLAIN, true);
 }
 
 static void test_unit_name_replace_instance_one(const char *pattern, const char *repl, const char *expected, int ret) {