Using an Atari ST as Unix/Linux Terminal
For using your atari ST as a Unix/Linux terminal you will need:
An USB serial adapter looks like this:
You can just throw the CD driver away, as Linux has built-in support for these devices. On a Debian 6 (Squeeze system), which uses the sysvinit startup system, you have to edit the file /etc/inittab
Inside this file you should add a line like
This means: start a login process on the serial line ttyUSB0, of speed 19200 bits/s, where a “ansi” text terminal will connect. If the screen displays garbage characters instead of a login prompt, just unplug and replug the usb serial adapter, and wait 5 seconds for getty to relaunch a terminal line.
Source: www.atari-wiki.com