apt-get install hangs while unpacking

["David Hattery" <hattery@ieee.org>]

All,

About 90 percent of the time apt-get install hangs while unpacking.  This
requires a ctl_c to stop, and a dpkg --configure -a before retrying.

There are 4 related processes so I am wondering if my setup is starting
too many.  Example from on a reinstall after an aborted try (ps ax):

 4839 pts/0    S      0:00 apt-get --reinstall install gimp1.2
 4849 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/bin/dpkg --unpack
/var/cache/apt/archives/gimp1.2_1.2.3-2_i386.deb
 4856 pts/0    S      0:00 dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile
/var/cache/apt/archives/gimp1.2_1.2.3-2_i386.deb
 4857 pts/0    S      0:00 dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile
/var/cache/apt/archives/gimp1.2_1.2.3-2_i386.deb
 4858 pts/0    S      0:00 dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile
/var/cache/apt/archives/gimp1.2_1.2.3-2_i386.deb

Any suggestions are welcome!