SOLVED (sort of) [Fwd: Problem with serial port access in Tk app?]

I used Google Code search to find other examples of assigning the handle 
to POE::Wheel::ReadWrite.  Code snipped:

     $heap->{fh} = new IO::File;
     if (!$heap->{fh}->open("+</dev/ttyS0")) {
          confess("Unable to open /dev/ttyS0 RW: $!\n");
     }

     set_speed($_[HEAP]->{fh}, '9600');

Then I could do a "Handle => $heap->{fh}"

set_speed I used verbatim and it and the rest seems to work fine:

sub set_speed ($$) {
     my $fh = shift || die;
     my $speed = shift;

     my $termios = POSIX::Termios->new() || die;
     $termios->getattr(fileno($fh)) || die "$!";

     # The handshake is done at 9600
     eval("\$termios->setispeed(&POSIX::B$speed)") || die "$!";
     eval("\$termios->setospeed(&POSIX::B$speed)") || die "$!";

     $termios->setattr(fileno($fh), &POSIX::TCSANOW);
}