Using Xserve G4’s serial port for outbound communication

When I stuffed up the config on my Cyclades console server, I plugged it’s console port into the serial port on the XServe so I could get in there and fix it up. However, you can’t use ZTerm or any other terminal emulation program to use the serial port unless you disable serial terminal support (ie the ability to log into your XServe via a serial cable). That is, you can only have it set up for oubtound serial sessions, or inbound. We want outbound, in this case.

Edit the following file:

vi /System/Library/StartupItems/SerialTerminalSupport/SerialTerminalSupport

Find the section that reads:

# To disable configuration of the serial port for use as a terminal,
# change the value for the line below to $FALSE. The default is $TRUE.
# This change will only affect server platforms.
ENABLE_SERIAL_TERMINAL=$TRUE

Just set that $TRUE to $FALSE and reboot.

Background, also from the same SerialTerminalSupport file:

# Serial Terminal Support
# -----------------------
# The status field in the following line in /etc/ttys is automatically
# set to 'on' thus enabling the serial port (tty.serial) for terminal
# access:
#
# tty.serial "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" vt100 off secure
#
# This behavior may be turned off by setting the ENABLE_SERIAL_TERMINAL
# variable below to $FALSE and setting the status field for tty.serial
# in /etc/ttys to 'off'.