Sparc console problem

[Ben Bullock <brb3_(_at_)_pobox_(_dot_)_com>]

I've been happily running OpenBSD 2.9 on a Sparc 5 for about the past 
six months.  A few days ago I decided I'd try to run it without 
keyboard and monitor using a serial console on a PC (FreeBSD 4.4).  So 
I disconnected the keyboard and monitor and ran a null modem cable from 
serial A on the Sparc to COM1 on the PC.  I also have a straight 
serial cable with a 25-pin male connector on each end to 
accomodate the Sparc's 25-pin female serial port.

Just to be on the safe side, I booted the Sparc using the floppy29.fs 
image. (I later tried floppy30.fs, also without success).

Using kermit on the PC I did:
set line  /dev/cuaa0
set speed 9600
set flow  rts/cts
set serial  8n1
set carrier-watch off
connect

I can watch the Sparc bootup on the PC console, which goes fine up to 
the point where the kernel is fully loaded.  These are the last two 
lines of output on the console:
rootdev=0x1100 rrootdev=0x6a00 rawdev=0x6a02
WARNING: clock gained 279 days -- CHECK AND RESET THE DATE!

At that point everything stops. I can't get the Sparc's attention; 
nothing I type is echoed and no login prompt appears.  I can, however, 
give it a break, get to the ok prompt and do a printenv, etc., but 
that's it.  I'm confident the null modem cable is good because I've 
used it to connect to the serial port of another PC and successfully 
login, etc.  BTW, I tried using 'cu  -l  /dev/cuaa0'  instead of kermit 
but that didn't work either.

I've found other messages relating to this type of problem in the 
archives but never did see any solution posted, so I am wondering if 
I'm at a dead end here or if there may be something I've missed.  I've 
also seen several reports of folks successfully running OpenBSD on 
Sparcs via serial console so I'm hopeful that I can somehow get this 
problem solved.

Thanks for any advice you can give me.
-Ben


**dmesg (from a normal boot with keyboard and monitor attached):
OpenBSD 2.9-stable (GENERIC) #0: Fri Jun 22 23:35:50 EDT 2001
    root_(_at_)_sparky:/usr/src/sys/arch/sparc/compile/GENERIC
real mem = 100274176
avail mem = 90157056
using 200 buffers containing 5013504 bytes of memory
bootpath: 
/iommu_(_at_)_0,10000000/sbus_(_at_)_0,10001000/espdma_(_at_)_5,8400000/esp_(_at_)_5,8800000/sd_(_at_)_1,0
mainbus0 (root): SUNW,SPARCstation-5
cpu0 at mainbus0: MB86907 @ 170 MHz, on-chip FPU
cpu0: 16K instruction (32 b/l), 16K data (32 b/l), 512K external (32 
b/l) DVMA coherent cache enabled
obio0 at mainbus0
clock0 at obio0 addr 0x71200000: mk48t08 (eeprom)
timer0 at obio0 addr 0x71d00000 delay constant 82
zs0 at obio0 addr 0x71100000 pri 12, softpri 6
zs1 at obio0 addr 0x71000000 pri 12, softpri 6
slavioconfig at obio0 addr 0x71800000 not configured
auxreg0 at obio0 addr 0x71900000
power0 at obio0 addr 0x71910000
fdc0 at obio0 addr 0x71400000 pri 11, softpri 4: chip 82077
fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: 1.44MB 80 cyl, 2 head, 18 sec
iommu0 at mainbus0 addr 0x10000000: version 0x5/0x0, page-size 4096, 
range 64MB
sbus0 at iommu0: clock = 21.250 MHz
dma0 at sbus0 slot 5 offset 0x8400000: rev 2
esp0 at dma0 offset 0x8800000 pri 4: ESP200, 40MHz, SCSI ID 7
scsibus0 at esp0: 8 targets
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 1 lun 0: <IBM, DCAS32160SUN2.1G, S60B> SCSI2 
0/direct fixed
sd0: 2063MB, 8188 cyl, 3 head, 172 sec, 512 bytes/sec, 4226725 sec total
sd1 at scsibus0 targ 3 lun 0: <FUJITSU, M2954ESP SUN4.2G, 2848> SCSI2 
0/direct fixed
sd1: 4094MB, 3882 cyl, 16 head, 135 sec, 512 bytes/sec, 8385121 sec 
total
bpp0 at sbus0 slot 5 offset 0xc800000: DMA2
ledma0 at sbus0 slot 5 offset 0x8400010: rev 2
le0 at ledma0 offset 0x8c00000 pri 6: address 08:00:20:87:6b:4b
le0: 16 receive buffers, 4 transmit buffers
audiocs0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0xc000000 pri 9, softpri 4
audio0 at audiocs0
power-management at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0xa000000 not configured
cgsix0 at sbus0 slot 3 offset 0x0: SUNW,501-2325, 1152 x 900, rev 11 
(console)
cgsix0: attached to /dev/fb
root on sd0a
kbd: type = 4, layout = 0x21
rootdev=0x700 rrootdev=0x1100 rawdev=0x1102


**Relevant portion of printenv output:
output-device  screen
input-device  keyboard
ttya-rts-dtr-off  false
ttya-ignore-cd  true
ttya-mode  9600,8,n,1,-

NOTE: I tried setting both output-device and input-device to ttya, but 
that did not help.