The other thing is trying to debug with gdb.  If I set a break point and
   then try and continue past it, I get :
   
   	Program received signal SIGTRAP (5), Trace/BPT trap
   
   at the same place a few times and eventually it will continue on.  If I
   try to single step, it will either hang or eventually (after a few minutes)
   stop at another line - and not necessarily the next line.  Is this something
   in gdb or in the kernel?


break points and stepping on the sparc is basically broken.  the way i
do things is set a break point at _every_ point i want to stop at,
whether it be a traditional break point, or somewhere i want to get to
via 'step' or 'next' in gdb.


it's really annoying, yeah.