Index: head/sys/ufs/ffs/ffs_alloc.c
===================================================================
--- head/sys/ufs/ffs/ffs_alloc.c
+++ head/sys/ufs/ffs/ffs_alloc.c
@@ -1958,6 +1958,16 @@
 }
 
 /*
+ * Synchronous inode initialization is needed only when barrier writes do not
+ * work as advertised, and will impose a heavy cost on file creation in a newly
+ * created filesystem.
+ */
+static int doasyncinodeinit = 1;
+SYSCTL_INT(_vfs_ffs, OID_AUTO, doasyncinodeinit, CTLFLAG_RWTUN,
+    &doasyncinodeinit, 0,
+    "Perform inode block initialization using asynchronous writes");
+
+/*
  * Determine whether an inode can be allocated.
  *
  * Check to see if an inode is available, and if it is,
@@ -2065,6 +2075,7 @@
 				dp2->di_gen = arc4random();
 			dp2++;
 		}
+
 		/*
 		 * Rather than adding a soft updates dependency to ensure
 		 * that the new inode block is written before it is claimed
@@ -2074,7 +2085,10 @@
 		 * written. The barrier write should only slow down bulk
 		 * loading of newly created filesystems.
 		 */
-		babarrierwrite(ibp);
+		if (doasyncinodeinit)
+			babarrierwrite(ibp);
+		else
+			bwrite(ibp);
 
 		/*
 		 * After the inode block is written, try to update the