more on the serial ports

[wb2oyc <wb2oyc@bellatlantic.net>]

Udo,
    OK, I just tried kernel 2.0.33pl1 #160 (the kernel from the install
floppy set) and minicom does the same thing.  I won't work until that
harware flow setting is toggled.  When I say it won't work, that means
it will not pass data until you do toggle that setting, and in this case,
I only used it as the serial console on my IPX.

    But, I've also learned more about this issue.  You actually can 
alter ANY of the serial port params, or even just chose one, and not
really change anything at all.  The act of selecting one, and going
thru the motions of changing something does the trick!

    Now, that suggests to me that the ports are not being initialized
until you do this.  Normally, this is done, or was anyway, by 
/etc/rc.serial.
There is no such file.  Have I not installed something perhaps?  
Apparently,
chosing a port and going thru the steps of changing something results in 
the
port being init'd, as it will then come to life.

    There is a file in /etc/rc.boot, 0setserial, and in the comments
there it even says that initializing the ports is not neccessary for 68k
machines!  So, I did a fresh boot, and then ran setserial /dev/ttyS0 
spd_normal after logging into root.  Then, launching minicom.  This makes 
no difference and the port still must be selected as before or it won't 
function.

    So, we know how to get them to come to life, but not why their not
alive until we do it.  Something is not happening during boot I suspect
that would normally init them.  Once you do this, it seems to work just
fine.

Paul