Clarification on RH Upgrade, pgsql not working - erroneous pg_hba.conf

Folks,

I went back through my notes and I had done an upgrade to 7.3.1 via RPM two
months ago. The RedHat Upgrade from 8.0 to 9.0 just did a 'minor' version
upgrade to 7.3.2. However, I have not been able to get a connection since
the upgrade. Postmaster loads fine, but I get:

FATAL: Missing or erroneous pg_hba.conf file, see postmaster log for details

Here is my pg_hba.conf file (from /var/lib/pgsql/data) that has always
worked:

# TYPE DATABASE USER IP-ADDRESS IP-MASK METHOD

local all all
trust
host all all 127.0.0.1
255.255.255.255 trust
host all all 192.168.1.0
255.255.255.0 trust
host all all 24.128.216.179
255.255.255.255 md5
host all all 217.33.107.74
255.255.255.248 md5

I even reloaded the entire data directory from tape backup. I've never been
able to find this 'postmaster log' file. Nothing shows in syslog, and
there's an empty pgsql file in /var/log. Postgresql.conf file is the
default - all lines commented out. Postmaster starts with:

su -l postgres -s /bin/sh -c "/usr/bin/pg_ctl -D $PGDATA -p
/usr/bin/postmaster -o '-i -p ${PGPORT}' start > /dev/null 2>&1" <
/dev/null

(where $PGDATA is /var/lib/pgsql/data and $PGPORT is 5432)

Any insights would be appreciated - our online scheduling system has been
down all week.

Rgds,

________________________
Greg Kelley, IT Director
Britannic Aviation, US and UK
US Office:
Pease Int'l Tradeport
68 New Hampshire Ave.
Portsmouth, NH 03801
603.766.3005
http://www.britannicaviation.com
AOPA, EAA, SSA
CFII SEL, MEL; Comm Glider