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
diff --git a/init/init.c b/init/init.c
index 22bedd9..d65220c 100644
--- a/init/init.c
+++ b/init/init.c
@@ -278,7 +278,8 @@
 
 	/* 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;