postmaster blues after system restart

I'm experiencing an unusual situation on a recently reprovisioned
server.

It's a Debian server (testing/unstable) running a 2.6.13.3 kernel.
postgres 8.0.4 was built from source. I'm using a slightly modified
version of the tarball sample init script that includes a function to
start pg_autovacuum automatically.

When I restart, everything seems to come up fine with the exception
that postmaster starts in a state such that it doesn't seem to be
accepting connections (either over UNIX or TCP/IP). As best I can
tell, it is using the init script to start postgres because
pg_autovacuum tries to start, too, and dies shortly after the box
comes up because it, too, cannot connect to postgres.

The very odd thing is that if I use this same init script manually
once the box is up to stop/start postgres, everything comes up roses.

So: is there anything unusual that could happen in terms of order of
operations or pathing during the boot process that I am overlooking?

Also, is there any way to get more status out of a postmaster if one
cannot connect to it? I am able to run pg_ctl status and
pg_controldata, both of which return normally.

--
Thomas F. O'Connell
Co-Founder, Information Architect
Sitening, LLC

Open Source Solutions. Optimized Web Development.

http://www.sitening.com/
110 30th Avenue North, Suite 6
Nashville, TN 37203-6320
615-469-5150
615-469-5151 (fax)