postgresql 7.3 will not start, no error message given

I tried installing postgre 7.3... Since the Gentoo distro I'm using is
largely automated, there are config scripts to take care of copying the
files to the right place and so on, the config is all default values. I
should also mention it compiles all the software on the spot. So I installed
postgre but I can't seem to be able to start the server. Running
/etc/init.d/postgresql start shows a fail code but no error message. Also,
there are no logs, the path declared in the conf file at
/etc/conf.d/postgresql (/var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.log) doesn't
exist (file isn't there) so I've no idea how to retrieve the error message.

/etc/conf.d/postgresql....

===

# PostgreSQL's Database Directory
PGDATA=/var/lib/postgresql/data

# Logfile path: (NOTE: This must be uid/gid owned by the value of $PGUSER!)
PGLOG=/var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.log

# Run the PostgreSQL user as:
PGUSER=postgres

# Extra options to run postmaster with.
# If you want to enable TCP/IP for PostgreSQL, add -i to the following:
PGOPTS="-N 1024 -B 2048"

===

/etc/init.d/postgresql...

===

depend() {
need net
}

start() {
ebegin "Starting postgres"
su - $PGUSER -c "/usr/bin/pg_ctl start -D '$PGDATA' -s -l
'$PGLOG' -o '$PGOPTS'"
eend $?
}

stop () {
ebegin "Stopping postgres"
su - $PGUSER -c "/usr/bin/pg_ctl stop -D '$PGDATA' -s -m fast"
eend $?
}

svc_restart () {
ebegin "Restarting postgres"
su - $PGUSER -c "/usr/bin/pg_ctl restart -D '$PGDATA' -s -m fast -l
'$PGLOG' -o '$PGOPTS'"
eend $?
}

===

Running the command from the init file above on the command line gives no
return value but it still doesn't start the server.

I tried running /usr/bin/pg_ctl status -D '/var/lib/postgresql/data' and it
tells me the server isn't running but I still don't know why.

$PGDATA and its subdir is owned by postgres:postgres. postgres has an entry
in /etc/passwd too.

*help*

Martin

Ps. System is a Gentoo1.4, kernel 2.4.19 on a Pentium 166.