Arduino 0009, Ubuntu 6.06, serial ports not found

/dev contains ttyS0,ttyS1 as 16550A-compatible COM ports but the "serial port" item on the Tools menu is greyed out. In contrast the "Microcontroller" item which offers atmega168. Attempts to upload the Blink sketch produced an error msg indicating the absense of a serial port. The Braille terminal driver has been removed as specified in install instructions. How can I get Arduino to see the serial ports? :-[