Even with the most meticulous attention to detail, something could still go wrong while setting up a terminal. Here is a list of symptoms and some suggested fixes.
Make sure the terminal is plugged in and powered up. If it is a personal computer acting as a terminal, make sure it is running terminal emulation software on the correct serial port.
Make sure the cable is connected firmly to both the terminal and the FreeBSD computer. Make sure it is the right kind of cable.
Make sure the terminal and FreeBSD agree on the bps rate and parity settings. If you have a video display terminal, make sure the contrast and brightness controls are turned up. If it is a printing terminal, make sure paper and ink are in good supply.
Make sure that a getty process is running and serving
the terminal. Type
ps -axww|grep getty
getty processes. You should
see an entry for the terminal. For example, the display
22189 d1 Is+ 0:00.03 /usr/libexec/getty std.38400 ttyd1
getty is running on the second serial
port ttyd1 and is using the std.38400 entry in
/etc/gettytab.
If no getty process is running, make sure you have
enabled the port in /etc/ttys. Make sure you
have run kill -HUP 1.
Make sure the terminal and FreeBSD agree on the bps rate
and parity settings. Check the getty processes to make
sure the correct getty type is in use. If not, edit
/etc/ttys and run kill -HUP 1.
Switch the terminal (or the terminal emulation software) from ``half duplex'' or ``local echo'' to ``full duplex.''