PostgreSQL 8.4 won't start

Hello,

I have come accross a strange thing. I had to reinstall Ubuntu and
after I installed PostgreSQL (using apt-get install postgresql-8.4)
when I tried to configure the password I got "Cannot connect to
server. Is server running locally and accepting connections on Unix
port 5432"? I never had such problem with PG before (I had 8.4.4
installed before the reinstallation of the system) I admit I haven't
checked the logs or anything as it was very late at night and also I
thought that it's too strange to be a typical situation like
postmaster.pid issue (missing file or bogus data in postmaster.pid).
Have anyone had such problems with PostgreSQL 8.4?

--
Łukasz Brodziak