diff --git a/stand/lua/cli.lua b/stand/lua/cli.lua
index 596e55a8d1d..6832da0a31a 100644
--- a/stand/lua/cli.lua
+++ b/stand/lua/cli.lua
@@ -30,6 +30,18 @@ local core = require("core")
 
 local cli = {}
 
+if not pager then
+	-- shim for the pager module that just doesn't do it.
+	-- XXX Remove after 12.2 goes EoL.
+	pager = {
+		open = function() end,
+		close = function() end,
+		output = function(str)
+			printc(str)
+		end,
+	}
+end
+
 -- Internal function
 -- Parses arguments to boot and returns two values: kernel_name, argstr
 -- Defaults to nil and "" respectively.