Need help with understanding serial port connections

Using Vmware Server 1.0.2 on a Linux host (Debian Etch 4.0 with kernel 2.6.18-3) and a Linux guest (kernel 2.6.17.8).

I'm trying to understand how to connect to a guest's serial port from the host.

I've chosen /dev/ttyS0 as the VMware guest port, and on startup, it locks /dev/ttyS0 on the host:

\# ls -ld /var/lock/*ttyS0

-rrr-- 1 root jubal 11 Apr 11 16:26 /var/lock/LCK..ttyS0

Now, on the host, I cannot connect to /dev/ttyS0 using minicom because it's locked:

\# minicom

Device /dev/ttyS0 is locked.

\# ls -ld /dev/ttyS0

crw------- 1 root root 4, 64 Apr 11 16:32 /dev/ttyS0

So I am wondering if I'm completely misunderstanding how to go about connecting to a guest's serial port. If I remove the lockfile, I can start up minicom, but I can't do anything with it: minicom says /dev/ttyS0 is offline.

Does anyone have some basic clue to help me out? I've had some difficulty finding any coherent discussion of how to \*connect* to guest serial ports, either here in the VMTN or via Google.

Thanks much,

Jubal