Serial console broken on RELENG_8 ?

Hello,

We are noticing that serial no longer functions the same way it did in
7.X when using -h or -D in /boot.config

What we are seeing is this:

Boot:  1
/boot.config:  -h
Consoles: serial port
BIOS drive C: is disk0
BIOS 639kB/490496kB available memory

FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 1.1
(sullrich_at_freebsdcurrent.livebsd.com, Wed Sep 23 20:26:13 UTC 2009)
Loading /boot/defaults/loader.conf
/boot/kernel/kernel text=0x789ca4 data=0x149434+0x80de0 -
|
Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt.
Booting [/boot/kernel/kernel]...
\

And then the serial console stops functioning.

This is on PC-Engine ALIX boards, VIA Embedded and anything else that
I can find here that only features a serial console (Nexcom, too).

Does anyone have any suggestions?

My apologies if this is the wrong list.

Thanks in advance,

Scott