A patch from Marc Karasek and Kanoj (kernel serial.c maintainer)

so init will work on serial consoles with 2.4.3+ kernels, thanks
to Fabrice Gautier <gautier@email.enst.fr> for finding this one.
 -Erik

init/init.c

@@ -278,7 +278,8 @@ static void set_term(int fd)
 
 	/* Make it be sane */
 	tty.c_cflag &= CBAUD|CBAUDEX|CSIZE|CSTOPB|PARENB|PARODD;
-	tty.c_cflag |= HUPCL|CLOCAL;
+	tty.c_cflag |= CREAD|HUPCL|CLOCAL;
+
 
 	/* input modes */
 	tty.c_iflag = ICRNL | IXON | IXOFF;