diff --git a/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/etc/Makefile.in b/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/etc/Makefile.in
index 147beba62..fe75b25da 100644
--- a/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/etc/Makefile.in
+++ b/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/etc/Makefile.in
@@ -304,7 +304,7 @@ G_LIVESUPPORT_EXE_LIBS = -l${PLAYLIST_EXECUTOR_LIB} \
                          -l${SCHEDULER_CLIENT_LIB} \
                          -l${CORE_LIB} \
                          ${BOOST_DATE_TIME_LIB} \
-                         -lxmlrpc++ -lssl -ltar
+                         -lxmlrpc++ -lssl -ltar -lserial
 
 TEST_RUNNER_OBJS = ${G_LIVESUPPORT_OBJS} \
                    ${TMP_DIR}/TestRunner.o \
diff --git a/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/src/GLiveSupport.cxx b/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/src/GLiveSupport.cxx
index 4b252c832..bfbbd1466 100644
--- a/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/src/GLiveSupport.cxx
+++ b/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/src/GLiveSupport.cxx
@@ -182,6 +182,11 @@ const std::string   authenticationNotReachableKey =
  *----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
 const std::string   localeNotAvailableKey = "localeNotAvailableMsg";
 
+/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ *  The default serial device
+ *----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
+const std::string   defaultSerialDevice = "/dev/ttyS0";
+
 }
 
 /* ===============================================  local function prototypes */
@@ -396,6 +401,9 @@ GLiveSupport :: configure(const xmlpp::Element    & element)
     testAudioUrl.reset(new Glib::ustring(
                            testAudioUrlElement->get_attribute("path")
                                               ->get_value() ));
+
+    // TODO: make this configurable
+    serialDevice.reset(new std::string(defaultSerialDevice));
 }
 
 
@@ -1781,3 +1789,23 @@ GLiveSupport :: createScratchpadWindow(void)
     }
 }    
 
+
+/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ *  Write a string to the serial device.
+ *----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
+void
+LiveSupport :: GLiveSupport ::
+GLiveSupport :: writeToSerial(Ptr<const std::string>::Ref   message)
+                                                                    throw ()
+{
+    try {
+        serialStream->Open(*serialDevice);
+        (*serialStream) << *message;
+        serialStream->flush();
+        serialStream->Close();
+    } catch (...) {
+        // TODO: handle this somehow
+        std::cerr << "IO error in GLiveSupport::writeToSerial()" << std::endl;
+    }
+}
+
diff --git a/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/src/GLiveSupport.h b/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/src/GLiveSupport.h
index daa581e4e..099b3e460 100644
--- a/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/src/GLiveSupport.h
+++ b/campcaster/src/products/gLiveSupport/src/GLiveSupport.h
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
 #include <map>
 #include <boost/enable_shared_from_this.hpp>
 #include <unicode/resbund.h>
+#include <SerialStream.h>
 
 #include "LiveSupport/Core/Ptr.h"
 #include "LiveSupport/Core/LocalizedConfigurable.h"
@@ -253,17 +254,27 @@ class GLiveSupport : public LocalizedConfigurable,
         /**
          *  The location of the test audio file.
          */
-        Ptr<Glib::ustring>::Ref        testAudioUrl;
+        Ptr<Glib::ustring>::Ref         testAudioUrl;
 
         /**
          *  The command which starts the scheduler daemon.
          */
-        Ptr<Glib::ustring>::Ref        schedulerDaemonStartCommand;
+        Ptr<Glib::ustring>::Ref         schedulerDaemonStartCommand;
 
         /**
          *  The command which stops the scheduler daemon.
          */
-        Ptr<Glib::ustring>::Ref        schedulerDaemonStopCommand;
+        Ptr<Glib::ustring>::Ref         schedulerDaemonStopCommand;
+
+        /**
+         *  The serial device.
+         */
+        Ptr<std::string>::Ref                   serialDevice;
+
+        /**
+         *  The serial stream object.
+         */
+        Ptr<LibSerial::SerialStream>::Ref       serialStream;
 
         /**
          *  Read a supportedLanguages configuration element,
@@ -375,6 +386,7 @@ class GLiveSupport : public LocalizedConfigurable,
         {
             openedAudioClips.reset(new AudioClipMap());
             openedPlaylists.reset(new PlaylistMap());
+            serialStream.reset(new LibSerial::SerialStream());
         }
 
         /**
@@ -1277,6 +1289,12 @@ class GLiveSupport : public LocalizedConfigurable,
          */
         void
         createScratchpadWindow(void)                            throw ();
+
+        /**
+         *  Write a string to the serial device.
+         */
+        void
+        writeToSerial(Ptr<const std::string>::Ref   message)    throw ();
 };
 
 /* ================================================= external data structures */
diff --git a/campcaster/src/tools/libserial/libserial-0.5.2/bin/prepare.sh b/campcaster/src/tools/libserial/libserial-0.5.2/bin/prepare.sh
index f50d5d7c6..604d8709e 100755
--- a/campcaster/src/tools/libserial/libserial-0.5.2/bin/prepare.sh
+++ b/campcaster/src/tools/libserial/libserial-0.5.2/bin/prepare.sh
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ cd ${tmpdir}
 if [ ! -d $product ]; then
     tar xfz ${tar}
     cd $product
-    # put patches here
+    # patch not submitted yet
+    patch -p1 < $etcdir/libserial-gcc-4.0-fix.patch
 fi
 
diff --git a/campcaster/src/tools/libserial/libserial-0.5.2/etc/libserial-gcc-4.0-fix.patch b/campcaster/src/tools/libserial/libserial-0.5.2/etc/libserial-gcc-4.0-fix.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..71e2455f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/campcaster/src/tools/libserial/libserial-0.5.2/etc/libserial-gcc-4.0-fix.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+diff -aur libserial-0.5.2 libserial-0.5.2-gcc-4.0
+--- libserial-0.5.2/src/SerialStreamBuf.h       2005-10-17 02:19:12.000000000 +0200
++++ libserial-0.5.2-gcc-4.0/src/SerialStreamBuf.h       2007-01-23 14:16:18.000000000 +0100
+@@ -568,6 +568,6 @@
+             return next_ch ;
+         }
+
+-    } ; // namespace LibSerial
++    } // namespace LibSerial
+ } // extern "C++"
+ #endif // #ifndef _SerialStreamBuf_h_
+--- libserial-0.5.2/src/SerialStream.h  2005-10-01 23:24:21.000000000 +0200
++++ libserial-0.5.2-gcc-4.0/src/SerialStream.h  2007-01-23 14:16:23.000000000 +0100
+@@ -346,6 +346,6 @@
+             return mIOBuffer->is_open() ;
+         }
+
+-    } ; // namespace LibSerial
++    } // namespace LibSerial
+ } // extern "C++"
+ #endif // #ifndef _SerialStream_h_