I think the 8.0.0 ebuild (for a fresh postgresql installation) sets the newly created postgres account shell to /bin/false in the passwd file and the /etc/init.d/postgresql startup script does not like that. Reproducible: Didn't try Steps to Reproduce: 1. emerged a new build of PostgreSQL 8.0.0 (fist time install of any version): ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge postgresql 2. Followed the advice on http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Configure_Postgresql except I made a link from /var/lib/postgresql to /home/postgres/ (so I could have the data files on my raid) and used 8.0.0 ebuild files instead. 3. Noticed the ebuild called initdb so skipped that line in the wiki docs. 4. could not su to postgre, the shell was set as /bin/false in the /etc/passwd file. 5. tried /etc/init.d/postgresql start Actual Results: the startup script gave an error and said check the /var/lib/postgresql/postgresql.log file, but that file did not exist. Expected Results: Expected successful startup of postgresql. I edited the /etc/passwd file to set a /bin/bash shell and tried /etc/init.d/postgresql start again. This time it worked. Portage 2.0.51-r14 (default-linux/x86/2004.0, gcc-3.3.5, glibc-2.3.4.20040808-r1, 2.4.23 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.4.23 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 Python: dev-lang/python-2.2.3-r5,dev-lang/python-2.3.4 [2.3.4 (#1, Oct 27 2004, 07:02:12)] dev-lang/python: 2.2.3-r5, 2.3.4 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.59-r5 sys-devel/automake: 1.8.5-r1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.15.92.0.2-r1 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.2-r7 virtual/os-headers: 2.4.19-r1, 2.4.21-r1 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j3" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 3dnow aalib apache2 apm berkdb bitmap-fonts cdr crypt cups doc dvd encode f77 font-server foomaticdb fortran gd gdbm ggi gif gpm gtk gtk2 imlib ipv6 java jpeg junit libg++ libwww mad mikmod mmx mysql ncurses nls oggvorbis oss pam pdflib perl png postgres python readline samba sdl slang slp spell ssl svga tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts usb xml xml2 xmms zlib" Unset: ASFLAGS, CBUILD, CTARGET, LDFLAGS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY
first, I didn't know the wiki page. These are procedures I suppose about set up PostgreSQL using portage/ebuild. 1. emerge postgresql 2. ebuild /var/db/pkg/dev-db/postgresql-8.0.0/postgresql-8.0.0.ebuild config 3. /etc/init.d/postgresql start (below is optional) 4. su postgres 5. createuser <username> 6. su username 7. createdb <dbname> (if you need) 8. psql <dbname> (or using other clients) we might need to add more messages after emerging.
8.0.3 works if you pay attention to the emerge messages. In particular you have to run: emerge --config =postgresql-8.0.3 after after the emerge. Then it works with no problems. I have corrected http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Configure_Postgresql to reflect this. This is not a bug in my opinion.
Well, in the new versions of postgresql, the shell for the postgres-user is set to /bin/bash. It should therefore be possible to do "su postgres".
