For some reason Linux distros mostly default to not sending anything over the serial port, even when they can't find a video device. To get everything you need

For some reason Linux distros mostly default to not sending anything over the serial port, even when they can't find a video device. To get everything you need to have GRUB, the kernel, and inittab configured to use the serial port. Once you've done that it all works, but yeah annoying.