AmigoBot

Change the autoboot time out - this step needs to be done once

Power up the Stayton and press the space bar to get to the bootloader prompt
To change the autoboot timeout to 3 seconds, enter the following:
set autoboot_timeout 3
Save the autoboot time
params save
If you want to investigate other boot loader commands, type "?" for help.
If you want to see other parameters, type
show

Reconfigure the console - this step needs to be done once

Many processes send messages to the console. The default console device is the serial port. If you have the serial port connected to a robot, you don't want the robot to receive those messages. So boot up into Linux, log in, and type
mv /dev/console /dev/console.bak
ln -s /dev/null /dev/console

Use the serial port with the robot - this step is done every time you start up Stayton

Turn on the Stayton. You may have its serial port connected to the robot. The Stayton will autoboot after 6 seconds.
When the wireless card on the Stayton begins to blink, you know it is up.
ssh from a remote laptop to the Stayton using your wireless link.
log in
"getty" has grabbed Stayton's serial port waiting for a login. You need to prevent that by getting into run level 4. (Currently Stayton is in run level 2.) Type the following.
init 4

Get the robot going

Start up "player" configured to use /dev/tts/0.
Start up your client. Hope this helps. If you have any problems, let me know.

Instead of turning off getty, our group uses dual serial-ports pcmcia card. I have tried on Amigobot, and it works.

One way we did it with amigo-bot long back is by doing following --

switch off respawn for getty in the inittab
run a script using nohup which does the following -- sleep for a few seconds to allow you to switch the serial port connection to the bot, kill the getty, and then run your program which uses the serial port.
Once your program is finished, restart the getty

This way you can use the same serial port and have no need for an extra pcmcia serial card.