problems with getpass.getpass() under Linux

[DG]

Greetings,

I have Slackware Linux 8.0 with the (as distributed) Python 2.0.1 installed.
When I import getpass and try to getpass.getpass() I get the following error
and the password is echoed:

"Warning: Problem with getpass. Passwords may be echoed."

Looking into getpass.py it does this:

try:
        import termios, TERMIOS

If that fails, it goes on to try to import Windows and then Mac-specific
modules, with a fallback to just calling raw_input (effectively).

I have TERMIOS.py in /usr/lib/python2.0/plat-linux2 but I do not have
termios.py anywhere.

I have the Python 2.2.1 tarball (not (yet) installed), it contains
TERMIOS.py and but not termios.py (altho it does have a termios.c).  I
notice that the 2.2.1 getpass.py only tries to import termios.

What do I need to do to have getpass.getpass() work correctly?

tia

Rowdy