OpenBSD2.9/sparc slow installation

[Rodney Ferryman <ferrymr@Nationwide.com>]

I have checked your bug reports for the problems I have had and not
found anything similar.

I have noticed going through the install process for OpenBSD2.9/sparc
the install process is exremely slow as compared with an
OpenBSD2.8/sparc install.

I have tried on Sparc 4, 5 and 20 with the same results.  Memory ranges
from 64Mb to 512Mb with the same results.  I have tried slower disks
and faster disks, same results.  I have tried a local install where
all files are in one partition ... same slow performance.  I have
tried ftp and NFS installs on an isolated network with only two systems
on it ... the one where OB is being installed and the other where the
install files are.  I have ran the install using both the floppy29.fs
and miniroot29.fs with no differences either.

Doesn't seem to matter what combination I use, the install is always
slow.  The symptoms I see are when the *.tgz files are being read,
gunziped and untarred.  The slowness is there reguardless of whether
the files or local on disk or retreived off the network.  It seems when
the *.tgz files are first processed, things go pretty quickly as you
might expect but after 30 seconds or so it starts to slow to a crawl.
I can tell by watching the ethernet hub that eventually very little
data is being transfered.  Also the little progress graph that is
displayed for each *.tgz file will periodically show "stalled" even
when installing from disk.

The install eventually does finish successfully, but takes several
hours.

Please let me know if you need any more info.

       Rodney