>> Ugh.  Only a solution if you have a breakout box or a cable-making kit.  If
>> you're stuck at home with just a set of cables that have molded connectors, 
>the
>> software approach is the only answer (I'd hate to tell people that the answe
>r
>> to getting their terminal working is to buy a breakout box or make their own
>> magic cable).
>
>I don't think the state of the art is such yet that you can get away
>without having the ability to modify/fix a cable, *unless* you have very
>standard applications, and you purchase the best possible "standard"
>hardware....

Maybe we're trying to do different things - I don't claim to be an authority
on RS-232 communcations, but I haven't had to make a cable for any of the
stuff I've tried to hookup to the NetBSD machine at home (we _are_ talking
about NetBSD still, right? :-) ).  I've hooked up a fair number of terminals,
modems, and printers and at most I had to switch the serial cable I had with
a null modem cable.  Are trying to say that building a magic cable with
CD tied to DTR is desirable to setting "local" in /etc/ttys?

--Ken