Using PC as serial terminal on running system

[Jonathan McKeown]

I'm using my laptop and tip(1) as a serial terminal. This is working well when 
a machine is booted with the laptop connected to its serial port. However, I 
need to be able to connect the laptop to a machine which was booted without a 
serial console.

I've set the ttyd0 line in /etc/ttys and sigHUPed init. The machine is still 
not recognising the presence of the ``serial terminal'' - the getty(1) 
process on the server is not bound to a controlling terminal and nothing is 
appearing in the tip(1) screen on the laptop.

I've also tried fiddling about with conscontrol, adding ttyd0 on the server - 
still no difference.

Have I missed a trick somewhere, or do I really need to reboot the server to 
get it to recognise a PC connected as a serial terminal?

(Connection is laptop - USB - BAFO 810 USB/serial adapter - null-modem cable - 
server)

Jonathan