serial console

[KokHow Teh]

Hi;
      I have debian linux running on my PQ2FADS-ZU with devfs and serial
driver compiled in. I have read Documentation/serial-console.txt and I have
tried both passing "console=" option as well as without passing that to the
kernel and both don't give me the expected results.
      When I pass "console=tts/0,115200n8" to the kernel, I don't get any
console output until the login prompt which I set to 115200 in
/etc/inittab. When I don't pass "console=" option to the kernel, I get
console output all the way until "Freeing unused kernel memory:" and the
console output is garbled and I don't see any login prompt. Here is the
/dev/* content:


(none) login:
Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (none) tts/0
Password:
Last login: Thu Jan  1 02:29:06 1970 on tts/0

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
(none):~# l /dev
total 0
crw-------  1 root root 8, 0 Jan  1 02:00 .devfsd
lr-xr-xr-x  1 root root   13 Jan  1 02:37 MAKEDEV -> /sbin/MAKEDEV
crw-------  1 root root 5, 1 Jan  1 02:00 console
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:00 discs
crw-rw-rw-  1 root root 1, 7 Jan  1 02:00 full
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:00 ide
prw-------  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:37 initctl
crw-r-----  1 root root 1, 2 Jan  1 02:00 kmem
srw-rw-rw-  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:37 log
crw-r-----  1 root root 1, 1 Jan  1 02:00 mem
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:00 misc
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:00 mtd
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:00 mtdblock
crw-rw-rw-  1 root root 1, 3 Jan  1 02:00 null
crw-r-----  1 root root 1, 4 Jan  1 02:00 port
crw-rw-rw-  1 root root 5, 2 Jan  1 02:00 ptmx
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:00 pts
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:00 pty
crw-r--r--  1 root root 1, 8 Jan  1 02:00 random
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:00 rd
lr-xr-xr-x  1 root root   33 Jan  1 02:37 root -> ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2
drwxrwxrwt  3 root root   60 Jan  1 02:37 shm
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:00 soc
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root    0 Jan  1 02:00 tts
crw-rw-rw-  1 root root 5, 0 Jan  1 02:00 tty
crw-r--r--  1 root root 1, 9 Jan  1 02:37 urandom
prw-r-----  1 root adm     0 Jan  1 02:37 xconsole
crw-rw-rw-  1 root root 1, 5 Jan  1 02:00 zero
(none):~#

      This is what I end up without "console=" option passed to the kernel:

<snip>
Mounted devfs on /dev
Freeing unused kernel memory: 232k init 4k prep
..���.�...��������.��.�...�...���......�..�...���..�.�.��.��.....��[42;124H.
 <no login prompt>

      My question is, how can I get a complete serial console output all
the way from bootup to the login prompt? I am missing something. It is
either the kernel configuration or I have to tweak the codes somewhere. Any
input and insight is appreciated.

Regards,
TEH