diff --git a/terminal/org.eclipse.tm.terminal.serial/README.txt b/terminal/org.eclipse.tm.terminal.serial/README.txt
index 50b8553076d..a2edcc54b59 100644
--- a/terminal/org.eclipse.tm.terminal.serial/README.txt
+++ b/terminal/org.eclipse.tm.terminal.serial/README.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,37 @@
 Important note:
 
-In order to compile this plugin, comm has to be installed into 
-the java installation...
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+In order to compile and run this plugin, comm has to be installed into 
+the java installation. Once comm.jar is installed in your JRE, you'll
+need to quit and re-start Eclipse PDE in order to recompute the classpath.
+
+Linux or Solaris:
+-----------------
+* Get comm3.0_u1 or later from Sun at 
+  http://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=43208d3d
+* Follow the installation instructions. As per 3.0_u1 on Linux, you need to
+  - cp jar/comm.jar $JRE/lib/ext
+  - cp doc/javax.comm.properties $JRE/lib
+  - cp lib/*.so $JRE/lib/i386
+
+Windows:
+--------
+* Get comm.jar 2.0.3 ZIP archive from Sun at
+  http://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=43208d3d
+  - Extract comm.jar into %JRE%\lib\ext
+* Get rxtx-2.0-7pre1-i386-pc-mingw32.zip from
+  http://users.frii.com/jarvi/rxtx/download.html
+  - Extract RXTXcomm.jar into %JRE%\lib\ext
+  - Extract rxtx*.dll into %JRE%\bin
+* Create new text file 
+	%JRE%\lib\javax.comm.properties
+  with the following line as contents:
+	driver=gnu.io.RXTXCommDriver
+
+Other platforms (MaxOS X etc):
+------------------------------
+* Get comm.jar 2.0.3 as explained for Windows
+* Get rxtx-2.0-7pre1.tar.gz sources for your platform from
+  http://users.frii.com/jarvi/rxtx/download.html
+* Follow instructions to compile and install. You'll need a 
+  javax.comm.properties file as explained for Windows.
+  
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