From owner-freebsd-questions  Sat Oct 28 00:45:16 1995
Return-Path: owner-questions
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id AAA20781
          for questions-outgoing; Sat, 28 Oct 1995 00:45:16 -0700
Received: from ix.ix.netcom.com (ix.ix.netcom.com [199.182.120.2])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id AAA20769
          ; Sat, 28 Oct 1995 00:45:13 -0700
Received: from ppp.silcom.com by ix.ix.netcom.com (8.6.12/SMI-4.1/Netcom)
	id AAA07857; Sat, 28 Oct 1995 00:44:43 -0700
Message-Id: <199510280744.AAA07857@ix.ix.netcom.com>
From: d_burr@ix.netcom.com (Donald Burr)
To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org
Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Port of minicom?
Date: Sat, 28 Oct 1995 07:47:12 GMT
Organization: Netcom
X-Mailer: Forte Agent .99b.113
Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org
Precedence: bulk

Back in my days of using Linux, I got hooked on the MINICOM telecom
program that came with it.  Mainly because, since I only have 8 MB of
memory, X ran really slowly, and for some reason, I find MINICOM's
user interface a lot nicer than Seyon's, and it's easier to configure,
etc.

Anyway, I attempted porting the latest version of Minicom 1.71 (the
latest version I could find), available at
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/comm/minicom-1.71.tar.gz.  The
documentation CLAIMS that FreeBSD is supported, however I had to do
some (admittedly minor) code hacking (mainly the config.h and the
Makefile) to get it to compile right.  And it works, but with several
(some minor, some major) exceptions:

1.	Can't get any other key to work as the "meta" key, besides the
clunky <Ctrl-A> sequence.  It would be nice to be able to hit <Alt-D>
to dial instead of <Ctrl-A> D.  (Is this a limitation/incompatibility
with the FreeBSD console driver?  And can it be fixed?)

2.	Occasionally, the modem port (I'm using /dev/cuaa0) will "lock
up" and refuse to work.  This usually happens when I start minicom,
and it tries initializing the modem; sometimes, it fails.  Exiting and
re-running minicom usually clears this up.  tty problem?  am I using
the right /dev file?  [My modem is an internal USR Sportster 28.8, and
it worked perefctly well under an identical setup, except running
LInux instead of FreeBSD.]

3.	This is the major problem: I've configured my download
protocols (zmodem, in my case, since that's the only protocol I ever
use).  Auto-downloading works fine... BUT, when the protocol exits
(i.e. the file transferred OK), MINICOM totally locks up -- the only
way to exit (and this is by no means a graceful exit) is to flip over
to another VC and 'kill -TERM' it.  This is really annoying, to say
the least.

Anyway, is there a better port of minicom out there?  (I didn't see
one in either /cdrom/packages or /cdrom/ports [Walnut Creek FreeBSD
2.0.5 release CD]).  Does anyone even care?  Am I the only one who
prefers using a text-based comm program to using Seyon under X?  Is
the world coming to an end? [just kidding]

Please reply by the lists (probably freebsd-ports).  Thanks!