Re: Postgres 9.2.4 for Windows (Vista) Dell Vostro 400, re-installation failure PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP!!

Hi Stephen,

As per my experience, installing postgresql on windows machine automatically create postgres user. When you uninstall it, the postgres user doesn't automatically removed, you must remove it manually.

So, when you install postgres for the second time, it will use existing postgres user which already exist therefore uses the password which you have forgotten.

Try uninstall postgresql and remove postgres user, or alternatively, reset postgres user password from Computer Management.

Regards,
Nur Hidayat

.
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-----Original Message-----
From: "Stephen Brearley" <mail(at)stephenbrearley(dot)name>
Sender: pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)orgDate: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 12:28:57
To: <spam_eater(at)gmx(dot)net>
Cc: <pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Postgres 9.2.4 for Windows (Vista) Dell Vostro 400, re-installation failure PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP!!

Hi Thomas

**Thanks for getting back to me**

In answer to your points:

1) I could not get Postgresql to run correctly, so I assumed it could
be a bug. I checked the documentation for bug reports, and this seemed to
suggest that anything that appears to be a bug should be reported. If a
decision is made that this is not a bug, it would be helpful if someone sent
a short message to say so, and tell me to report my problem elsewhere.
Otherwise I just sit there waiting and nothing happens!!

5) There does not appear to be a specific 'Uninstall' option on the Windows
Start menu, so I went to Control Panel, Programs and features, PostgreSQL
9.2 Uninstall/Change option. Is this correct?

6) I have not performed an upgrade of Postgres. Inititially, I had no
Postgres, then I installed postgresql-9.2.4-1-windows.exe, then I forgot my
password as was using Navicat that remembers it automatically and tried to
use pgAdmin which doesn't, so I tried to reinstall (then of course
remembered my password!). I have not been able to get Postgres to work
correctly/connect since.

-Thank-you for confirming there are no hidden users -I spent many web
searches trying to work out how to remove/reset these (whew)!!

No, I did not verify that Postgres was running, but have since checked in
the Task Manager and it is running when I fire up pgAdmin. However, I should
not get any error message during the install process, and to me this clearly
suggests something is wrong, as the log I attached shows. Any ideas what is
wrong please?

I would not normally do anything in the Registry, as I am aware that is
asking for trouble. However, I hadn't noted that I could specify a data
location on my original install, so I checked the web and this appeared to
be the only way to do this for some programs. I edited
PostgreSQL|Installations|postgresql-9.2|Data Directory and changed the
default from the C: drive to my folder on the D: drive as
D:\_SDB\Database\RDBMS\PostgreSQL\9.2\data. This worked fine until I had the
password problems I mentioned above, and tried to do a reinstall, so I don't
think this registry edit is causing the problem. I have only recently found
the postgresql.conf option on pgAdmin.

Where/what is init.db? I don't have any instructions for this file. Not sure
what you mean.

I too am now puzzled about pg.log. I think I believed this was related to
'hidden' Windows users which you say are not now used, so please disregard
this point now.

I realise that new versions of Postgres go into a different file system on
the C: drive, and that I can't just move the system files across or rename
directories. However, in this case I am trying to reinstall exactly the same
version, so everything should be the same, so surely it should be okay to
move my old data out of the way, remove the folder it was in, perform the
reinstall and move the data back? Maybe it isn't. I was not aware of this
pg_dump/pg_restore, as these instructions are intended for upgrades, which
of course I would not have read, as I am trying to perform a reinstall of
the same version. Therefore I will try to perform a dump, then I guess
remove all my Postgres folders in D:, then reinstall Postgres and run
pg_restore to bring everything back in (though this doesn't explain the
errors in the installation log).

Regarding the password, I have typed in the same password which I used
everytime I tried to install Postgres, so I started to think there was an
install problem as listed in the installation log. The installation process
paused with a popup error message which I did not have the first time I
installed Postgres, and the log file indicates a return code other that '0'
near the end, so there is a problem there. Are there any restrictions on
characters that can be used in passwords? I used a 'complex' password
selecting one character from: # - < > ? @ \ /. If I entered the wrong
password several times and performed a reinstall, does Postgres continue to
lock me out after so many attempts, even if I perform a reinstall? Could
this be the problem, and if so, how do I get around it?

Apologies this is a long response, but you have raised a number of important
points.

Many thanks

Stephen

****************************************************************************
*****

Stephen Brearley wrote on 29.07.2013 21:23:

> 1.Explain why my bug report has not been responded to

Because it's not a bug as you simply upgraded incorrectly.

> 5.Tell me how I should uninstall Postgres, if I am doing this wrong

You did run the "Uninstall", did you?

> 6.Tell me how to remove any hidden users or how I should reset/remove
directories etc.

There are no hidden users - especially not with 9.2 (previous versions did
create a new Windows user, but that is not the case with 9.2). Unfortunately
you failed to mention from which version you upgraded.

> On re-installing Postgres, I have not been able to get it to work.

> During re-installation I get an error message saying the program

> exited with an error code, but otherwise appears to be okay. However,

> when I go into pgadmin and enter my password to connect to the server

> (any password gives the same response), I get a popup saying 'Server

> doesn't listen', could not connect, connection refused etc'. The

> setup defaults to port 5432 during the install process. I've checked

> postgresql.conf which has not been installed, but I've looked at an

> old copy that I moved into the data folder, and that looks at port

> 5432.

And did you verify that Postgres was actually running (e.g. by looking into
the taskmanager)

> Postgres was working okay before, so I don't think it's a problem

> with my system or firewall, as I have not changed anything. After my

> initial install, I edited the registry to point to the D: drive, as I

> prefer to have my data stored on a separate partition, and this

> worked okay.

What exactly did you "edit in the registry"? You shouldn't normally need to
do that if you ran initdb correctly.

> Consequently it will not allow me access to pg.log

What is "pg.log"?

> The Postgres install will not install with a data folder that is not
empty,

>so I had to re-name my data folder to data_old, and moved the contents back
in

> afterwards.

What was the version before? If you upgrade from a major version to another
(e.g. from 9.1 to 9.2) you can't just "copy" the data folder. You need to
migrate it using pg_upgrade (which requires the old server to be still
installed) or you need to use pg_dump and pg_restore to get the data from
the old install into the new one.

This is clearly documented in the manual.

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/upgrading.html

> The registry seems to be pointing to the right place to find my data.

Again it should not be necessary to edit anything in the registry.

If you need to change the Windows service (which I assume you tried to do
with hacking the registry) you should use pg_ctl for that.

> I don't seem to be able to get anywhere with pgadmin, as

> when I try to connect I get a fatal password authentication error

> now.

Which means the server *is* running, you simply supplied the wrong password.

> pgadmin.log

> 2013-07-18 11:17:56 ERROR : Error connecting to the server: FATAL:
password authentication failed for user "SDB"

That is not the logfile from your installation, it's a "normal" message from
pgadmin that the password supplied for the user SDB was wrong. That has
nothing to do with re-installing Postgres and clearly nothing with the
"hidden" users you were referring to.

So apparently your new version **is** running correctly, you just have the
wrong credentials.

> The main difficulty seems to be trying to re-install Postgres. If you

> already have created a database, the install program balks at having

> a data folder that is not empty, causing me to use the above

> workaround to copy back my data afterwards. Should be able to do

> this!

Again: the upgrade process is clearly documented in the manual.

Thomas