>The problem is that 'faxgetty' is creating a LCK.. file and any
>program on the system that honors that (which they should)
>cannot dial out.  The flexfax scheme seemed much more intelligent
>as it "watched" the port and exec'd a getty if it needed one.

That hasn't changed - faxgetty does that on my home system.  A lock file
gets created during initialization, but when the modem is idle then the lock
file gets deleted.

>The 'faxgetty' should block on open of the tty and I thought that
>the 'local' flag in /etc/ttys would cause that effect.  'softcar'?

Shouldn't need either - faxgetty is smart enough to open the tty in
non-blocking mode.  If you're using the binary distribution, maybe you should
try compiling your own version -- it sounds like something is broken with
your faxgetty.

--Ken