Handling of ports, and naming convention?

[lasse]

Hello! 
A fresh installation of 5.0 are now up and running, there are som issues that i wonder about 
1. I must be able to login by the serial port, but i cant by default, why? and here can i cange it?
2. Ports, how do i know i i got the latest set of ports? and if there are new ports out, can i upgrade all ports in one step? (apt-get dist-upgrade) (the debian way)
3. Where can i  find a good howto about recompile the kernel? (step by step, but not for dummies)
4. Are there any i-left-linux-for-bsd guides? ide,serial,scsi namingconventios ?