>After some digging in the kernel, I found that it loops in com.c, procedure
>comopen, with the following statement:

>/* flush any pending I/O */
>while (ISSET(bus_space_read_1(iot, ioh, com_lsr), LSR_RXRDY))
>        (void) bus_space_read_1(iot, ioh, com_data);

>Somehow, it seems that there always are pending incoming packets (although
>there is nothing connected to the port!). Do I have broken hardware?

	I don't know if this helps any, but I have a 386/33 with a serial
console which once in a while, whenever I turn off its terminal (a Microterm
5510), the serial port goes mad and inputs data constantly (I first noticed
because 'ruptime' from a neighbor machine reported solid 1.00 load for the
previous couple of days, and I discovered the data coming in was spawning
getty's madly).

	In any case, this happened only occasionally, and only with a
particular I/O card; I came to the conclusion that it was flaky hardware.

Cheers,
Phil
--
Phillip F Knaack
Database Programmer, Information Development for Extension Audiences (IDEA)
Iowa State University Extension