debian-installer: A boot parameter for a serial console?

[Shaul Karl <shaulk@actcom.net.il>]

  I used the floppies of 20040303 and tried, at the boot prompt, to 
revert to a serial console. I failed.

  If you wonder why would I use the real console (tty0) to revert to a
serial console, the answer is that I tried to get back as quickly as
possible to my desk to continue the installation there. Working at my
desk is much more productive. However I couldn't boot the machine by 
means of its NIC because the NIC has no boot prom and, in general, I
don't have the set-up to boot the machine from the network.

  Following http://wiki.debian.net/index.cgi?DebianInstallerNetbootPXE
and the help screen of F7 (or F8), I tried both linux and expert with

  debian-installer/framebuffer=false console=ttyS1,9600n8

. The serial console had a totally unreadable output, though it seemed
to get lots of input. In contrast, the real
console showed:

    Loading linux...................
    Loading initrd.gz...............
    Ready.

or something very similar.

  My question is: was that supposed to work? And if not, what parameters
should I use at the boot prompt to have the installer use a serial 
console?

-- 
"If you have an apple and I have  an apple and we  exchange apples then
you and I will still each have  one apple. But  if you have an idea and I
have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two
ideas." -- George Bernard Shaw     (sent by  shaulk @ actcom . net . il)