Restarting with pg_ctl, users, and passwords.

Hi,

I just installed postgresql 8.3 on Ubuntu Heron with Postgis. I've
worked with this install on XP before, but not on Linux. I'm having
trouble telling if the postmaster is started. But, maybe more root to
the problem, I cannot log onto the database via 'psql' when I supply
what I think I set as the correct password.

I've created a database and can log into it and do stuff with the
tables using psql. However, I have a CGI app that wants to call the
database (all on the same machine), but gets a 'FATAL: Ident
authentication failed for user "postgres"' error. now, while logged
onto my Linux user account 'postgres', I can psql into my database
without having to provide a password. So, while in there, I issued
the following SQL:

ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'postgres';

now, I *thought* what that would do would be to allow me to issue the
'psql' command from my regular non-postgres Linux account and log in
as long as I would issue:

psql -d mydb -U postgres -W

and then provide 'postgres' as the password as well, as I had changed
it in mydb as previously stated. But I am denied access when I try
this from my account. This is what is confusing to me. I suspect
that this may be at the core of why I cannot connect to mydb, but I am
not sure, as I cannot even confirm that the database is running as I
thought it would, since I don't know what process to look for in the
'ps -ef' dump.

Please advise, thanks!

Matt

--
It is from the wellspring of our despair and the places that we are
broken that we come to repair the world.
-- Murray Waas