I enabled serial console access on one of my FreeBSD 5.0 RELEASE boxes. I can use Windows HyperTerminal or a similar program to access my FreeBSD box using a serial cable and null modem. I restarted init via ‘kill -HUP 1’ and checked to see what had changed: root 493 0.0 0.3 1184 864 a0 Is+ Mon10PM 0:00.01 /usr/libexec/getty std.38400 cuaa0.”]
Source: https://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2003/02/i-enabled-serial-console-access-on-one.html