I had a similar problem on that other OS (Linux).  minicom was having
great problems talking to a cisco console port.  Had the engineer
download a copy of kermit and no further problems...

I put it down to cant-find-some-config-parameter-hidden-somewhere in
minicom, but maybe there is more to it...

Anyway, for those who don't remember kermit (or those that do, but so
long ago) it has GROWN in size, and has IP functionality now (was just a
simple terminal program with file transfer ability from the distant
80's).

-M

Bruce Martin wrote:
> 
> We have a piece of hardware that continuously outputs a 5 letter string
> (e.g. "ABCDEABCDEABCDE...") at 9600 8N1 asynchronous, with no flow control
> at all, just a Tx and GND pin. When I connect the board up to a serial port
> on NetBSD/i386 and run "minicom", it prints out "ABCDEABCDEABCDE..." as one
> would expect. However, if I unplug the connector and then plug it back in
> again, sometimes the information becomes corrupt: sometimes it transmits
> "&&&&&&&&&&&&&", sometimes ".~.~.~.~" and sometimes it prints a few "e e ee
> eee e e" and then just stops receiving totally.
> 
> I have tried the test with the board connected at the same time to
> NetBSD/i386 running "minicom" and "that other O/S" ;) running
> "HyperTerminal" - when I pull out the serial cable and replace it,
> HyperTerminal continues receiving the correct info all the time, while
> minicom get corrupt or stops receiving at all.
> 
> Has anybody else seen similar problems? It seems to manifest when you do a
> serial port open(), or read() when data is already coming through, or
> something like that....
> 
> Thanks
>  Bruce Martin