Regarding syslog. There is probably the busybox version syslogd installed, but it is not running per default (atleast on the imx7). To start it one could do
start-stop-daemon --start --exec syslogd -- -C100
This will run it in the background and one can read the logs with logread. The -C option is to store the log in RAM. For other options check ( https://busybox.net/downloads/BusyBox.html ). One can also easily start it at boot time with a small systemctl service script.
PS. I know the question is old, but just if someone is searching for syslog