Persistent arduino/pi connection - how?!

Challenge: I need a pi to talk to an arduino without resetting the arduino. I have shields on the arduino that prevent me from using a resistor to bridge 5v and gnd. The shield also blocks my access to RX/TX pins so I can't go use a hardware serial connection with a voltage divider to the pi GPIO pins. Using a daemon on the pi I want to open a connection to the arduino and then keep it open, passing messages back and forth between the arduino and my program.

Method: On the pi side I've got PEAR installed with System_Daemon and php_serial.class.php. I use a mysql db as a 2-way buffer.

Problem: The daemon doesn't appear to be receiving anything from the arduino. I know the daemon can read and write with mysql.

My daemon code so far: http://pastebin.com/hM9dJNsE

The error messages:

err: No stty availible, unable to run. [l:58]
warning: Specified serial port is not valid [l:141]
warning: Unable to set the baud rate : the device is either not set or opened [l:234]
warning: Unable to set parity : the device is either not set or opened [l:288]
warning: Unable to set length of a character : the device is either not set or opened [l:336]
warning: Unable to set the length of a stop bit : the device is either not set or opened [l:377]
warning: Unable to set flow control mode : the device is either not set or opened [l:422]
warning: The device must be set before to be open [l:167]

stty definitely exists on the pi and can be run as user root or pi, so I don't know why I'm getting error #1dd.

Why is this happening? Is there a better way? Has anyone got a working example?

Thank you!

Has anyone got a working example?

Are you running that code that you didn't show on the Arduino? If not, why are you here? Your problem really appears to be with the Pi. Do you routinely post Arduino questions on the Pi forum?