postgres on RedHat5.2 errors

I recently installed postgres 6.5 on RedHat Linux 5.2 and the installation
seemed to
go smoothly. When I got to the part where it said to use the initdb command
it ended with the error

ERROR: pg_atoi: error in "template1": can't parse "template1"
ERROR: pg_atoi: error in "template1": can't parse "template1"
syntax error 1 : parse error[postgres(at)ns1 pgsql]$

I cannot continue beyond that point because it stops and doesn't make the
pg_database

I anyone knows what I can do to continue I would appreciate the advice...

Thanks,

don(at)tsutsuji(dot)com