On Fri, 21 Jun 1996, Allen Briggs wrote:

> > There is a similar issue that I recently discussed with Bill Studenmund: If
> > you boot to serial console and switch off the terminal/the computer used as
> > console, the serial console deliberately panics.
> 
> This certainly shouldn't panic the system.  IMO, although if it's
> something like a loss of CD, the proper cable would do the trick to
> fix it.

Actually, chances are that it's being interpreted as a break.  I know that
my terminal deliberately sends a long break (500ms) when powered down,
which dumps the kernel into DDB.

--scott