The init script '/etc/init.d/postgresql' doesn't work because it thinks the database data is in '/var/db/pgsql/data'. The 7.1.3-r3.ebuild sets up the data in to '/var/db/${PN}/data' where ${PN} equals 'postgresql'. This discrepence causes postgresql to refuse to load. Unfortunatlly the init script doesn't notice the problem which confused me for too long as I tried to figure out what was wrong. Also (I think, I haven't tested yet) by editing /var/db/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf you can tell postgresql to use syslog directly as opposed to pipeing output to logger.
I'm not haveing any problems with postgresql-7.1.3-r4
