load 2nd stage u-boot.bin over uart not sending

I've got a ti8148 evm, and I want to test out the UART booting. Everything worked perfectly up until the part where I have to load the 2nd stage u-boot over serial from the u-boot-min prompt. I'm using minicom, instead of teraterm. I don't have a windows machine around, and even if I did, I don't want to have to deal with one just to get a serial terminal.

here is my terminal log:

  <<send u-boot.min.uart>>

  <<turn on evm>>

  <<transfer happens>>

U-Boot 2010.06 (Apr 17 2012 - 18:08:51)                                                         
                                                                                                
TI8148-GP rev 2.1                                                                               
                                                                                                
ARM clk: 600MHz                                                                                 
DDR clk: 400MHz                                                                                 
                                                                                                
DRAM:  2 GiB                                                                                    
Using default environment                                                                       
                                                                                                
The 2nd stage U-Boot will now be auto-loaded                                                    
Please do not interrupt the countdown till TI8148_EVM prompt if 2nd stage is already flashed    
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0                                                                
TI-MIN#loadb 0x81000000                                                                         
## Ready for binary (kermit) download to 0x81000000 at 115200 bps...                            

  <<send u-boot.bin (kermit)>>

  <<nothing happens>>

I've never used minicom to send files before, so I suspect I could be messing up with minicom. Anybody have success with a linux terminal program and uart booting?

thanks,

-Chris