> I tried using a DHV11 board in my microvax II a few months ago under
> version 1.2G and had trouble. I edited the /etc/ttys file and signal'ed
> init and then I could log in fine over the DHV11. Then I shut the unit
> down and re-booted and when the machine came up, I kept getting some error
> message on any serial line I hooked up to so I could not log in with a
> serial port, not even the console! I had to telnet into the machine and
> disable the dhv11 and re-boot. 
> Sorry that I can't be more specific about the error message,
> I think it was something about getty timing out or something. I mentioned
> it to someone and it seemed to be a known problem. If this has been fixed,
> I would like to know. 

This sounds like something I used to see several years ago working with
the serial drivers - you may have seen something like init: getty spinning,
terminating" or whatever - init spawns the individual getty's per enabled
port at multiuser time, the getty's keep dying so init disables the port
thinking there is a problem on that serial line.  I would see this happen
much as you describe - if I leave a DHV port or more enabled, a reboot, all
the serial lines (including console, not on the DHV) would exhibit the above
behavior.  I kept thinking it was not something the drivers themselves were
doing - that it was higher up, in the kernel or even init 8-)  But maybe I
am wrong... probably.  I guess there needs to be some study made of how
this one-time even occurs (i.e. boot to multiuser) so some bogus driver
behavior can be fixed... sigh.  -- Ken