remote system administration - grub via serial cable?

[Micha Feigin <michf@post.tau.ac.il>]

I'm trying to do some kernel development remotely which requires reboots and
the occasional kernel panic on start which is very annoying since then I need to
wait a few days until I get to the computer or someone knowledged enough is
around it to restart it into a working configuration.

Is there some way to control grub, see the startup text and reboot remotely in
case of kernel panic such as through a serial cable (although I need to check
if that motherboard actually has a serial port as these are hard to come by
these days).

Thanks