Okay. I recompiled the kernel on Pliny. I included support for a serial console (null modem connected to ttyS0 on Larousse). I can get a login prompt using the serial console, but authentication is failing for some reason. I am using agetty, which I don't know anything about configuring. Anybody now of a better getty, or how to properly configure agetty? I haven't used it while booting up yet (so I don't know if it is working in that regard). I looked throught the bios config, and didn't find any remote access or console redirection config options, so the most we can hope for is console redirection from the time the kernel loads.

the old kernel is still available (label=linux) in /etc/lilo.conf, in case we have any trouble with this one.