meta-updater: Unable to run init

I am trying to use OSTree with OE with RISC-V. I have ported meta-updater to a new board (freedom-u540). I have U-Boot starting where I then run these commands:

setenv bootargs earlycon=sbi earlycon=sbi console=ttySIF0 console=tty0 root=/dev/ram0 rw rootfstype=ext4 rootwait rootdelay=2 ramdisk_size=16384 ostree_root=/dev/mmcblk0p3
setenv devtype mmc
load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${kernel_addr_r} uImage;
load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${ramdisk_addr_r} initramfs-ostree-image-freedom-u540.cpio.gz.u-boot
bootm ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r} $fdt_addr_r

Where /dev/mmcblk0p3 contains my normal working rootFS, while initramfs-ostree-image-freedom-u540.cpio.gz.u-boot is the initrd produced by OE.

I see this failure during the kernel boot:

[ 8.067928] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p3): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) [ 8.078098] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x00000100 [ 8.085028] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: init Not tainted 5.2.1 #1 [ 8.090405] Call Trace: [ 8.092853] [<ffffffe0000394a8>] walk_stackframe+0x0/0xa6 [ 8.098223] [<ffffffe00003960e>] show_stack+0x2a/0x34 [ 8.103267] [<ffffffe0006871bc>] dump_stack+0x66/0x82 [ 8.108296] [<ffffffe00003dfa8>] panic+0xdc/0x246 [ 8.112983] [<ffffffe00003fd28>] do_exit+0x740/0x7a6 [ 8.117931] [<ffffffe0000407d0>] do_group_exit+0x2a/0xba [ 8.123228] [<ffffffe000040878>] __wake_up_parent+0x0/0x22 [ 8.128699] [<ffffffe0000383d6>] ret_from_syscall+0x0/0xe [ 8.134079] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs [ 8.137994] —[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x00000100 ]—

This is in my local.conf:

INHERIT_append_freedom-u540 = " sota"
DISTRO_FEATURES_append_freedom-u540 = " usrmerge"
DISTRO_FEATURES_NATIVE_append_freedom-u540 = " sota"

Any ideas why the init is dying? I’m using systemd as the init.