After much whacking, today's build actually completed for the first time in
   over a month. However, there seem to be some problems with the distribution
   sets...

cool.
   
   sh ../distrib/sets/maketars -s ../distrib/sets  -d /altroot -t
   /altroot/snapshot/binary/sets
   making base.tgz
   pax: Unable to access ./usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Alma-Ata <No such file or
   directory>
   pax: Unable to access ./usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Ishigaki <No such file or
   directory>

i thought klaus added these... ?

   making comp.tgz
   pax: Unable to access ./usr/bin/gdb <No such file or directory>
   pax: Unable to access ./usr/share/man/cat1/gdb.0 <No such file or directory>
   pax: Unable to access ./usr/share/man/man1/gdb.1 <No such file or directory>
   pax: Unable to access ./usr/share/misc/gprof.callg <No such file or directory>
   pax: Unable to access ./usr/share/misc/gprof.flat <No such file or directory>

this.

   making man.tgz
   pax: Unable to access ./usr/share/info/gdb.info <No such file or directory>
   pax: Unable to access ./usr/share/info/gdbint.info <No such file or directory>
   pax: Unable to access ./usr/share/info/stabs.info <No such file or directory>

and this are probably due to gdb and gprof being disabled on
the sparc right now -- todd will know.