modem/comm port locked!

["S. Salman Ahmed" <ssahmed@pathcom.com>]

I tried connecting to my ISP a little while before and after typing
"pon", noticed the following lines appear in one of my logs:

Mar 2 18:35:01 phoenix pppd[845]: pppd 2.3.11 started by ssahmed, uid 1000
Mar 2 18:35:01 phoenix pppd[845]: Device ttyS1 is locked by pid 836
Mar 2 18:35:01 phoenix pppd[845]: Exit.

When I picked up the phone, there was no dialtone. The only way to fix
the problem was to reboot the system. Is there any other way besides
rebooting to unlock the modem's comm port ?

Also, why would this happen in the first place ?

I am running an updated potato system.

Thanks.

-- 
Salman Ahmed
ssahmed AT pathcom DOT com