I've now seen reports of several different kinds of weird lossage on the i386
when using a serial console, from ncr driver chaos to machines which hang
inexplicably when a 'de' card is ifconfigged up, but then begin running fine
again as soon as they're sent anything on the console serial port.

I've seen the latter myself.  It really happens.  Same machine, same kernel,
just pull the VGA card and boot from the serial console, and when you ifconfig
the de card up, the machine hangs until it receives serial input.

I have some trouble understanding this.  Can anyone suggest a reason?  I'd
like to just toss one of the hung machines into DDB and see where it's
stopped, but the problem with this should be obvious...

I'm carboning this to current-users to see if any of the Silent Majority are
also experiencing this kind of trouble.

-- 
Thor Lancelot Simon	                                      tls@rek.tjls.com
	"And where do all these highways go, now that we are free?"