Server not listening... easy fix or workaround?

Hi,

I just installed Postgresql 8.4 on a MacBook (Snow Leopard) through Macports. All went fine down to the point where I wanted to make configuration a bit more practical for myself ;)

The server was installed nicely, I could initialize the default database, create passwords, users, databases, import my saved data from a older install and access all this through pgadmin. Pgadmin also offers the possibility to edit configuration-files, but there is a problem: you have to be able to access them ;) and you can't offer file-system credentials through pgadmin (not that I knew you could). So I thought I add myself (the OSX-user) to the postgres group and make the defaultdb folders and file readable for the group and the .conf-files read-writable... As a result pgadmin wouldn't be able to access the server any more with an error message starting similar to: the server is not listening at 127.0.0.1 on port .... The server was still running as launchctl reported, but even a reboot, or a reconstruction of the defaultdb-folders through timemachine wouldn't make the server "listen" again. Obviously something security-related is going on of which I have no idea. Would somebody mind pointing me to a better practice or a workaround? Basically I just want to edit the configuration files through pgadmin... In a more general perspective I was also thinking about backing up my data through the file-system rather than manually dumping the files, because I could use my general backup-software which runs periodically - but here as well I'd have to have read- and potentially also write access to the defaultdb folders...
Thanks in advance
Rainer