josh> For some reason the connection is useable for a while and then ceases
josh> to function. 

der Mouse> I have a Power Macintosh 4400 which exhibits very similar symptoms on
der Mouse> its console serial line under 1.4T.  I suspect hardware trouble, but I
der Mouse> have nothing I can point to as evidence of that.

  I also have Several OF 2.0.2 machines. At OF console, ttya
connection, I happen to have copy and paste some commands.

  If I paste two lines, the console cease to work. If it is before the
multi-user mode started, I need to hareware-reset to recover.

  It seems to me just overflow of serial input buffer which serial
chip can not handle.
---
Makoto Fujiwara
http://www.ki.nu/software/NetBSD/iBook2/