The IBM Thinkpad, The Dos Kermit and The Serial Port
by Zube (zube@stat.colostate.edu)
Created: Aug 6, 2005
Updated: May 13, 2007
http://www.stat.colostate.edu/~zube/docs/thinkkermit.txt

[ Additions, suggestions or corrections always welcome. ]

So, you're an old, cranky sys admin that likes serial consoles on Sun
servers.  You've long run out of dumb terminals and have learned an old
laptop with dos kermit is a more than suitable replacement, as kermit
provides excellent vt100 emulation.

On every laptop you've ever tried, kermit just works.  Sometimes you
have to dink with the port settings to get kermit to access the correct
serial port, but after that, it's smooth sailing.

Until you try an IBM Thinkpad 770.  There you get nothing.  Changing
the hardware doesn't make any difference.

For some reason, it turns out that you have to enable the serial port (!).

So go get this:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/uttpfdos.exe

Run it and it will create a floppy with a bunch of programs on it.

Then run:

ps2 ir disable
ps2 sera enable

Then kermit works as it should, no muss no fuss.

Also, if the laptop loses power and you don't have a working battery, 
you'll have to run this every time you turn on the laptop.