[CentOS] is it possible to login to a switch via RS232 / serial port from the shell?

[John R Pierce]

Rudi Ahlers wrote:
> That was a typo in my first post. I am using /dev/ttyS0 - with a bit S :)
>
> I have also noticed that there's no tty* in "dmesg | grep tty" or grep 
> tty /var/log/demsg
>
> could this be the problem / reason? I'm running CentOS 5.1 x64 with 
> Xen 3.0 kernel

hmmm.   5.1 i686 w/o xen...

$ grep tty /var/log/dmesg
serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
serial8250: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
00:0b: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
00:0c: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A

$ sudo setserial /dev/ttyS0
/dev/ttyS0, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4

$ sudo setserial /dev/ttyS1
/dev/ttyS1, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x02f8, IRQ: 3

(old school pentium-III 800 on a i815 board)