ruby vs. earm?

[Jeff Rizzo <riz%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

I'm currently trying to complete the first full bulk builds of pkgsrc 
packages for the following arches:

earm
earmv6hf
earmv7hf

Things are looking pretty good overall (I've actually finished earmv7hf 
first run!  packages are available on ftp.netbsd.org), but I'm running 
into an issue on earm (no hardfloat, armv5 instruction set):  the ruby 
packages very often (but not 100% of the time!) get into a state where 
their main LWP goes into 'parked' state, and is unresponsive to anything 
but kill -9.  This is making it very hard to get the pbulk run done, as 
I have to keep an eye on it, and kill -9 some ruby processes when I see 
the load drop to 0. (because all the processes have ceased making progress)

Does this ring a bell for anyone?  Any suggestions?

+j