Long boot times...

[Jeff Ross <openbsd_misc@rossandgram.com>]

Now, my next question :-)

I'm completely new to OpenBSD.  How long does it take to boot the system
on an 8 meg machine?

My first boot after this fresh installation was slow, but ssh-keygen was
making keys and so on.  The boot took about 30 minutes to get past
"preserving editor files", and then finally stalled (I guess) after
showing me the date.

After a couple of hours of watching the disk light solidly on and
listening to the disk thrash, I tried various key combinations to break
out of the startup attempt.  Nothing worked, so I cycled the power to try
again.

The next two attempts didn't have to wait for keygen, but the delays still
started with "preserving editor files", stalling, again, after the date
line appears.

I tried booting with verbose enabled, but apparently after the hardware is
scanned the verbose method doesn't apply, so, other than seeing that my
hardware is all being found, I didn't gain anything.

Is this a lack of ram problem?  Should I try booting from the installation
floppy, mounting the wd0 and wd1 to /mnt and /mnt2, and playing with some
of the startup options?  I can cut back on the number of virtual
consoles--what else can I try?

Maybe I'm just not patient enough ;-)

Thanks in advance,

Jeff Ross