> On my Sparc Classic (NetBSD-current 1998/12/19) there seems to exist a 
> problem with the DCD signal.  Mgetty complains about an "tio_get_rs232_lines: 
> TIOCMGET failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device" every time when
> initializing the serial port.
> 
> I had to configure "ignore-carrier true" in mgetty.config to get mgetty
> accepting calls and not to disconnect them immediately. Furthermore I had
> to change "modem" to "local" in .ppprc to convince pppd to connect to the
> serial port. Without this pppd starts and simply does nothing.

I don't know why TIOCMGET fails.

To get a dial-in modem to work reliably on a sparc recently, I put in
this change:

Index: z8530tty.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/src/sys/dev/ic/z8530tty.c,v
retrieving revision 1.53
diff -r1.53 z8530tty.c
1261a1262,1267
>	if (!ISSET(tp->t_state, TS_ISOPEN)) {
>		get += cc << 1;
>		if (get >= end)
>		get -= zstty_rbuf_size << 1;
>		cc = 0;
>	}

to work around premature echoing on the tty, an issue that has come
up before.

-pk