diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 880ab606..a0ea8ddd 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -283,6 +283,7 @@ aarch64-debian-container_prep:
       -Dwerror=true
       -Dtest-skip-is-failure=true
       -Dlauncher-libseat=true
+      -Ddeprecated-backend-fbdev=true
   after_script:
   - ninja -C "$BUILDDIR" coverage-html > "$BUILDDIR/meson-logs/ninja-coverage-html.txt"
   - ninja -C "$BUILDDIR" coverage-xml
diff --git a/libweston/backend-fbdev/fbdev.c b/libweston/backend-fbdev/fbdev.c
index a43f648e..7dfea6fb 100644
--- a/libweston/backend-fbdev/fbdev.c
+++ b/libweston/backend-fbdev/fbdev.c
@@ -893,6 +893,8 @@ fbdev_backend_create(struct weston_compositor *compositor,
 		seat_id = param->seat_id;
 
 	weston_log("initializing fbdev backend\n");
+	weston_log("warning: the fbdev backend is deprecated, please migrate "
+		   "to the DRM backend\n");
 
 	backend = zalloc(sizeof *backend);
 	if (backend == NULL)
diff --git a/libweston/backend-fbdev/meson.build b/libweston/backend-fbdev/meson.build
index e7b1544c..563ad6c5 100644
--- a/libweston/backend-fbdev/meson.build
+++ b/libweston/backend-fbdev/meson.build
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
-if not get_option('backend-fbdev')
+if not get_option('deprecated-backend-fbdev')
 	subdir_done()
 endif
 
+warning('Support for the deprecated fbdev backend is enabled.')
+warning('This feature will be removed in a future version.')
+
 config_h.set('BUILD_FBDEV_COMPOSITOR', '1')
 
 srcs_fbdev = [
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 0aa86d1c..befdb2dc 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -45,10 +45,10 @@ option(
 	description: 'Weston backend: X11 (nested)'
 )
 option(
-	'backend-fbdev',
+	'deprecated-backend-fbdev',
 	type: 'boolean',
-	value: true,
-	description: 'Weston backend: fbdev'
+	value: false,
+	description: 'Weston backend: fbdev (deprecated)'
 )
 option(
 	'backend-default',