Fault in Terminal Server causing server to hang on boot?

[Rick Miller]

Hi All,

I'm reaching out in hopes that someone may have seen something similar
and can shed some light.  Consider an HP DL360p G8 with FreeBSD
8.3-RELEASE-p4, serial port cabled to a Cisco 2800 series terminal
server.  Console is configured in the following manner:

/boot/loader.conf: console="comconsole"
/etc/ttys: ttyu0   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   vt100  on secure

The system hangs at boot while the terminal server is cabled to the
serial port.  Output is displayed on the video console to the point
that loader loads /boot/loader.conf.  The system freezes.  I have no
visibility into the terminal server configuration or port which the
hardware is cabled, but as soon as the serial cable is pulled from the
serial port, the system resumes booting and is remotely accessible
(via ssh) when it has come up.

Attached to a different terminal server (same model), the system boots
fine.  Not sure what the fault is on the terminal server.  What
possible conditions would cause the system to freeze while the serial
port is attached?  Why would loader care about these conditions?  The
desired result would be that the system boots completely despite any
fault with the terminal server.

-- 
Take care
Rick Miller