> 
> On Fri, 29 Nov 1996, Tristan Doherty wrote:
> 
> >   I just got 1.2 installed on my IIcx/20MB RAM and I'm trying to get the
> > modem (an *OLD* Abaton 1200 bps Interfax) running. So I have to get the
> > serial cosole working. Unfourtunately, I haven't had any luck in finding
> > any documentation on getting it set up. So when I check the "Serial
> > Console" box in the booter and try to boot, it gives me the following
> > message before it even clears the screen:

As others have mentioned, you don't want serial console for this
job.

> If you want to set up the serial port as an additional login (without
> displaying the internal console), you need to boot _without_ serial
> console, and edit the file /etc/ttys to turn on tty00 (I think it's 00,
> not 01, somebody correct me if not).

Under NetBSD, tty00 is the modem. Maybe we should just make a /dev/ttmodem
and a /dev/ttprinter to remove the ambiguity (mkLinux numbers them
in the exact opposite order, and they have dial-out ports, cuXX, so
we'd need more than /dev/printer or /dev/modem)?

The thing though is that you don't want to use getty either.

Oh, synapse, (consolidating responses) the "on" means not that you're
activating the port, but that you want init to control what happens
(close, but not quite the same thing).

I _think_ the thing to do here is to use mgetty, though I've never
done it so I'm not sure. You need a form of getty which knows about
modems, and which will send modem initialization strings to it, and
such. getty might work ok, but I think it's not the best. YMMV.

> > Some of the LEDs on the modem flash and then it completely freezes so I
> > have to restart.
> 
> That's because of the serial console.  The LED flash is caused by the
> computer sending all the normal boot dialog to your modem instead of the
> screen.  If your modem had bee connected to another computer's modem, you
> could have run your box through the modem, but you wouldn't have the
> internal console running.

Exactly. Things like "zstty0 at zsc0 ..." don't make sense to the modem.
Also, the reason it freezes is not that it's frozen, but that you've
told it to ignore the keyboard. And it does. :-)

Take care,

Bill