diff --git a/boards/chronos/putchar.c b/boards/chronos/stdio.c
similarity index 69%
rename from boards/chronos/putchar.c
rename to boards/chronos/stdio.c
index 49da88ef7a..d7e9ceb3cb 100644
--- a/boards/chronos/putchar.c
+++ b/boards/chronos/stdio.c
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2014 INRIA
+ *               2015 Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
  *
  * This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU Lesser
  * General Public License v2.1. See the file LICENSE in the top level
@@ -13,13 +14,15 @@
 
 /**
  * @file
- * @brief       eZ430-chronos putchar dummy implementation
+ * @brief       eZ430-chronos getchar/putchar dummy implementation
  *
  * @author      Oliver Hahm <oliver.hahm@inria.fr>
  * @author      Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
  *
  */
 
+#include <stdio.h>
+
 static void _dummy(int c)
 {
 }
@@ -31,3 +34,9 @@ int putchar(int c)
     _putchar(c);
     return c;
 }
+
+int getchar(void)
+{
+    /* dummy implementation */
+    return EOF;
+}